SHELBY COUNTY, Tenn. — A man is accused of beating and attacking his own mother in a north Shelby County home, and authorities say it only stopped when a friend came over and intervened.
Michael Pritchett, 34, is charged with two counts of aggravated assault.
A man told county deputies he went to Pritchett’s house on Cuba Millington Road near Millington on Saturday afternoon to work on Pritchett’s vehicle. He found the garage door open, so he went inside the house to look for his friend.
Inside, the man said, he found Pritchett’s mother in a chair, beaten and having trouble breathing. He then found Pritchett passed out in another room.
The man said he woke up Pritchett and asked what happened. Pritchett told him his mother owed him money, and he was upset over family issues, so he’d given her a large amount of Xanax to put her in a coma, authorities said.
Pritchett then allegedly went into his mother’s room and began pouring water on her to wake her up, then began choking her while pouring vodka down her throat. He was also accused by the man of groping his mother in a sexual manner.
The man said he tried to intervene, but Pritchett threw Coke cans at his head. Pritchett then allegedly picked up a saw blade and threatened to slit his friend’s throat and chop up his mother’s body.
When Pritchett allegedly put the saw blade to his mother’s throat, the man told deputies he heard the woman whisper “help me.” He said he pushed Pritchett off the woman and hit him in the face several times before going outside and calling 911.
When deputies arrived, they found the woman unresponsive, so they administered Narcan, started chest compressions and took her to Regional One.
They found Pritchett in the house. He was taken to 201 Poplar.