Grown Son Suspected in Sword Attack On Woman

A Prince George's County man attacked his 51-year-old mother with a samurai-style sword yesterday, striking her leg and nearly amputating her arm, authorities said.

A short time later, the man, 30, met authorities outside his mother's apartment in Laurel -- though at that point authorities knew nothing of the assault -- and was taken, at his request, to a hospital for a psychiatric evaluation, police said. Police declined to release his name or that of his mother.

According to Cpl. Debbi Carlson, a county police spokeswoman, the man called police at 10:05 a.m., saying he was "afraid he was going to hurt himself" and asking that police meet him outside the residence. They did so, and firefighters took him to a hospital for a psychiatric evaluation.

Mark Brady, a spokesman for the fire department, said firefighters arrived in the 8200 block of Gorman Avenue at 10:19 a.m. The man gave no indication of what he had allegedly done, Brady said.

Then, at 10:30 a.m., the mother called police, reporting that she had been attacked by her son and that he had left the residence, Carlson said.

"The officers and dispatchers put two and two together," Carlson said.

Firefighters returned to the scene, and the woman was transported to a trauma center in Baltimore for what Brady described as "a near amputation" of one arm.

Carlson said it was not immediately clear whether the attack occurred before the man called police or during the interval between the call and the time he was taken into custody. She said the provenance of the weapon was unclear but that it resembled a samurai sword.

No charges have been filed, she said.