Woman accused of fatally shooting disabled adult sons

Posted 1:17PM on Monday 10th June 2002 ( 23 years ago )

GRIFFIN - The youngest brother of two men shot to death by their mother said there was no indication of her plans when she left to visit her sons at the nursing home where they had been living. James Scott, 38, said his brothers were suffering from Huntington's disease the same degenerative brain disorder that claimed their father's life. ``My father died from it a long, agonizing death, years and years of just sitting in the bed dying, and they were doing it, too,'' Scott said. ``I don't think my brothers died last night,'' he said. ``I think they died a few years ago. Their life was over then.'' Carol Carr, 63, of Hampton, is accused of shooting her sons Michael Randy Scott, 42, and Andy Byron Scott, 41 in their room around 9:20 p.m. Saturday at SunBridge Care and Rehabilitation in Spalding County. Police said she then walked to the lobby, sat down on a sofa and waited for police to arrive. Both men died early Sunday. ``They have to be in a better place because they have been in a living hell,'' Scott said. Griffin police Sgt. James Landham said Carr has been charged with two counts of malice murder and could face additional charges. She is in custody at the Spalding County jail. Landham said both victims had been shot with a small-caliber handgun ``in the head and neck area.'' When questioned by police, Carr repeatedly told them she shot her sons because she didn't want them to suffer anymore, police said. ``At this time, it looks like her motive was a mercy killing,'' said Griffin police investigator Lt. Joe Estenes. Scott, who lives with his mother and stepfather, said she remarried after his father's death. His mother has been on medical disability since a back injury in 1981, he said. ``We all went to probate court in Clayton County back in 1995, and we all signed living wills saying if we got in my daddy's shape, then we didn't want to live anymore,'' said Scott, diagnosed with Huntington's disease in the mid-1990s. The hereditary disorder has no effective treatment or cure. Symptoms typically begin to appear between 30 and 45. The two brothers had lived at the center since January, said Chuck Brown, SunBridge administrator. Grief counselors and chaplains were brought in Sunday to console other residents and staff at the facility. ``It's an isolated incident,'' Brown said. ``Everybody's very upset, though, and anxious.'' He said Carr typically visited her sons several times a week but never gave any indication that she might harm them.

http://accesswdun.com/article/2002/6/193752