November 23rd, 2011
Mom says she shot son in struggle over meds

Flash

Late Friday night, a 47-year-old mother aimed a handgun at her 19-year-old son and demanded he leave her Kyle home. During the struggle that followed, authorities say the gun fired, delivering a fatal shot to her son’s head.

Anne Flash then made a 911 call and confessed to a Hays County Sheriff’s Office dispatcher that she had shot her son Michael, according to a law enforcement report. When authorities arrived to the home in the 700 block of Arroyo Ranch Road, they saw the emotional mother embracing her son, a .38 caliber revolver a few feet away, the report shows.

Texas Highway Patrol Trooper Joshua Ray escorted Anne Flash from her bedroom and ordered her to remain seated in the living room, an affidavit used to secure an arrest warrant says.

“I just shot my son,” Anne Flash told the trooper. “I wish he wouldn’t have grabbed my arm.”

Meanwhile, sheriff’s Deputy Charlie Conditt verified that Michael Flash, who had been lying on the floor near the foot of the bed, had died, says the affidavit, written by Detective Kelly Woodard.

Anne Flash was taken to the sheriff’s office where she recounted the circumstances behind the shooting. She told investigators that she and her son had been arguing about his prescription medication. She stated that she had hidden his medication, which she claimed he had been abusing. She said that her son entered her room, slammed dresser drawers and lifted up the mattress trying to find the pills.

About an hour and a half into their quarrel, Michael Flash went to the bathroom and Anne Flash retrieved the revolver from under a couch in the living room. She then returned to the bedroom and sat in a chair with the gun at her side, she said in the affidavit.

When Michael Flash re-entered the bedroom, his mother pointed the handgun at him and told him to leave the home. She says her son asked her if she would shoot him and she answered that she didn’t want to. Her son then grabbed the gun and it went off, she says in the affidavit.

Michael was pronounced dead at the scene by Justice of the Peace Beth Smith.

On Saturday, Anne Flash was booked into the Hays County Jail on murder, a first-degree felony. She was released the same day on a $100,000 bond, jail records show. She did not answer phone calls for comment.

Jail records show Michael Flash had been arrested in Hays County three times in the past year and a half on charges ranging from possession of a controlled substance to unlawfully carrying a weapon.

This story was originally published in the Hays Free Press. It is reprinted here through a news partnership between the Free Press and the San Marcos Mercury.