An Arkansas man has been arrested and is awaiting trial after he was accused of shooting his mother repeatedly in the head with a crossbow.

Mary Alexander told police that she woke up just before 7 a.m. on March 24 when she heard a cat meowing at her bedroom door, and she got up to let it outside. Moments later, she said, “she felt like hear eardrum had popped and saw blue,” KNWA reported.

Her husband, Mike Alexander, heard his wife scream and ran to investigate, finding  their 29-year-old son, Joseph Alexander, standing over his mother with a crossbow. Mike Alexander said his wife had multiple arrows in her head, a probable cause affidavit said.

At that point, the son forced his way into his parents bedroom and demanded money. Mike Alexander told investigators he sent his son $2,000 via Cash App and sent him another $,400 in Bitcoin before Joseph began demanding access to his parents’ bank account. His father told him he didn’t know the code, so the son began yelling at his mother, wounded on the floor, to give him the code.

Mike Alexander convinced his son to go into the garage with him, where he tried to deescalate the situation. At that point, the son told his father “don’t worry about it” because “she’s dead,” referring to his mother.

But Mary Alexander wasn’t dead. While her husband and son were in the garage, she fled the house to a neighbor’s, who called 911. She later told police that she played dead while lying on the floor and that she heard her son tell his father he wouldn’t kill him “because that will be a double homicide.”

First responders found Mary Alexander at the neighbor’s home and rushed her to a hospital for treatment.

Later that day, deputies in Stone County, Missouri, spotted Mike Alexander’s truck, which his son had taken, and initiated a traffic stop. Joseph Alexander led them on a high speed chase before crashing, and then struggled with deputies until they tased him and arrested him.

He reportedly admitted to shooting his mother with what he called a “toy crossbow” three times because he “”thought she was going after my cat.”

“I didn’t have a reason,” he told a detective. “I just lost my cool. I woke up, and I thought that she was, like, going after my cat for some reason. I just, like, literally stood up and lost my shit because of my cat.”

He also admitted that he broke into his parents’ home before the incident and was walking around quietly so as not to wake them.

According to KFSM, Mike Alexander told investigators that his son had been making threats and demanding money from them a few days earlier.

You need to give me what is mine, or else I’m going to have to go to the next level,” he reportedly said “… I’m going to take things into my own hands, and Dad, you don’t want me to do that.”

The exchanged prompted the elder Alexanders to change the garage code and secure windows, but Alexander said he believed his son had unlocked his old bedroom window during an earlier visit.

He also said that his son took his and his wife’s phones after the attack on his wife to prevent them from calling 911.

He was charged with attempted capital murder, aggravated residential burglary, interference with emergency communications, and domestic battery. He’s being held on a $750,000 bond. He’s due in court again on June 9.

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