Pictured: The moment a deranged mother held a gun to her son's head and executed him at a firing range

Pictured: The moment a deranged mother held a gun to her son's head and executed him at a firing range

By Jacqui Goddard
Last updated at 9:26 AM on 08th April 2009

This is the chilling moment a deranged mother held a revolver to her unsuspecting son's head at a shooting range and pulled the trigger, killing him before turning the gun on herself.

Marie Moore, who thought she was the Anti-Christ, took her 20-year-old son Mitchell to the Shoot Straight range in Casselberry, Florida, for what he thought was an afternoon's firing practice.

But as he concentrated on the target in front of him, his 44-year-old mother picked up a gun, pointed it at the back of his head and murdered him at point-blank range.


Marie Moore, centre, and her son Mitchell, left, speak briefly with a man in the next booth at the shooting range


Then, the shocking moment Moore raises her rented gun and aims it at the back of her unsuspecting son's head


Mitchell collapsed to the ground in a pool of blood as Marie lowers her gun - then steps back beyond the range of the camera and shoots herself


The man in the booth next to the mother and son realises what has happened and yells for help

Mitchell slumped to the floor dead as his mother stepped back, placed the gun in her mouth and again pulled the trigger. She died a short time later in hospital.

'I'm so sorry. I had to send my son to heaven and myself to Hell,' she wrote in a suicide note.

In rambling and tearful audio messages recorded before the incident she said she planned her son's slaughter to save the world from violence.

She said she heard God telling her: 'You have a gun. You can do it.'

'I have to die and go to hell so there can be a thousand years peace on earth,' she explained in the two tapes.

'God's turned me into the Anti-Christ... I'm a good person, but the Devil and God turned me into the worst person in the world. I'm so ashamed. And I'm so afraid. And I'll pay forever and ever.'

She adds: 'I'm sorry to leave you like this. It's a horrifying thing to do.'

The entire horrifying scene was captured on a security camera.

'I look and I see this kid collapsing, spitting up blood,' said eyewitness Bobby Davidowitz.

Casselberry police Lt. Dennis Stewart said there had been no warning that Moore was about to execute her own son.

'Nobody knows why,' he said. 'There was no argument or anything before.'

Police reports revealed that Moore had a history of mental illness. In her audio tapes, she talked of having spent long stints in psychiatric hospitals, and of the mental 'misery and torment' she suffered amid hallucinations that had her convinced at times that she was being buried alive, eaten by ants, burned at the stake and gassed.

She had apparently been barred from Shoot Straight seven years ago after trying to commit suicide there, her ex-husband - Mitchell's father - told police.

An attorney for the firing range has claimed allegation is not true, one report said. But the claim, in addition to her history of mental illness, immediately raised questions as to how she had been able to rent a gun there.

Moore also had two convictions for driving under the influence, which should have disqualified her from handling weapons.

Eyewitnesses to the murder incident said she had been acting 'hyper' and that she and her son appeared 'anxious with each other', with Moore pacing up and down and hovering nervously beside him minutes beforehand.

But she was also seen to be laughing at one point and swapping small-talk with a marksman in the lane next to theirs.

Mrs Moore was divorced but had a boyfriend who she addressed in notes and on tape as 'King', signing herself off as 'Failed Queen' and telling him: 'I'm sorry. I love you forever and ever.'

'The devil got to me, he destroyed me. He made me destroy all of us,' she wept on tape.

She added: 'I will pay forever and ever for what I've done and I just hope you can forgive me. When you get to heaven, tell my son how much I love him.'

Source: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1168424/Pictured-The-moment-deranged-mother-held-gun-sons-head-executed-firing-range.html