Police in Brownsburg, Indiana, a suburb on the west side of Indianapolis, arrested an elderly woman after she allegedly shot her husband. Police were describing the incident as domestic violence.
The woman is now facing serious criminal charges, including aggravated battery.
Police say that the couple had been in the midst of a dispute over two days, and the argument between them continued to get worse. The man ultimately got shot in his neck while the couple were at their residence. He had to have surgery and is in the process of recovering from the incident.
While police obviously drawn their conclusions about this story, in fact, it is often hard to know exactly who did what both during and immediately before an incident of alleged domestic violence. For instance, one possible defense the woman may have is that she was acting in self-defense.
She would be justified in using even potentially lethal force, for instance, if she fairly and honestly thought that she was going to be seriously hurt otherwise.
The point is that there is going to need to be further investigation in to this incident and the background of this couple before one can fairly draw any conclusions about this woman’s actions. She is innocent until the state proves her guilty beyond a reasonable doubt, and the state’s doing so would require that the state overcome any legal defenses she might have for her conduct.
This woman is facing very serious criminal charges which could easily, especially given her age, land her in prison for the rest of her life. She will want to evaluate her legal options carefully and may wish to have the assistance of an experienced criminal defense attorney when doing so.
