Sheriff: Deputies had been to home '4 or 5' times where 92-year-old woman killed son

FOUNTAIN HILLS, Ariz. - Maricopa County Sheriff Paul Penzone addressed the media Thursday with an update regarding the murder case of 92-year-old Anna Mae Blessing.

According to Penzone, MCSO deputies had been to the Fountain Hills home four or five times over the last four to six weeks related to domestic disputes and potential threats between Blessing and her son.

Penzone said the department is reviewing the case to determine if deputies "acted accordingly" during these prior calls to the home.

"There were communications between the parties expressing the frustration of the relationship even to the point that both had expressed a concern that the other party could become violent," Penzone said.

Blessing, 92, is accused of shooting and killing her son Monday. She allegedly told investigators she shot her 72-year-old son over his plans to move her to a assisted living facility.

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A sheriff's office release detailing the murder said Blessing put two pistols in the pockets of her robe and confronted her son in his bedroom. She shot multiple times, killing him.

According to Penzone, 13 weapons were recovered from the home, 11 belonging to the victim and two to Blessing.

"In respect for the Second Amendment, we cannot overreact to take firearms from an individual because of a concern that falls short of a legal or lawful basis," he said.

Penzone said law enforcement is "empowered to act within the law" and if there is not a law violation, "we are limited."

Penzone did not discuss too many specific details regarding the "fluid investigation," but said the department would continue to do a "thorough" review to make sure the department's deputies "took any and all action, they're lawfully empowered to do, to see if some action should've or could've been taken that might have mitigated this."

"If we failed in any shape or form, that is unacceptable, but we are not the ones ultimately responsible for when an individual decides to take an act of using a firearm or weapon to take another life," Penzone said. "It is that individual's responsibility, they own that act."

Because of her "advanced age," Penzone said Blessing, who is facing a charge of first-degree murder, is being held in the jail's infirmary.