Son charged with shooting mom after threatening suicide

VERNAL — A Vernal man has been charged with a felony after police say he threatened to kill himself but shot his mother instead.

The woman waited more than six hours after she was wounded to call for an ambulance, according to charging documents filed Wednesday.

On Oct. 15, Vernal police were called to Alice Hall's home about 12:30 p.m. The first officer to arrive said he found the 75-year-old injured woman "standing at the front door getting the mail from the mailbox."

"I asked her where she was shot. She said in the knee," Vernal police officer Steve Labrum wrote. "She moved her robe away from her knee so that I could see the wound."

Hall's right knee was "very swollen and had what appeared to be two holes," Labrum wrote.

She told investigators her son was intoxicated and had threatened to commit suicide about 6 a.m. She was standing across the kitchen from him when he pointed a .357-caliber revolver to his head, then began to bring it down to his side.

Michael Ray Hall, 44, told detectives the gun discharged when he tried to lower the revolver's cocked hammer as he drew the pistol away from his head.

After the shooting, police say Hall helped his mother get the bleeding under control, put her in bed and left the house.

Hall was booked into the Uintah County Jail but posted bail and is living with his mother again. He was charged Wednesday in 8th District Court with discharge of a firearm, a third-degree felony. His first court appearance is set for Nov. 5.

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