An 85-year-old man in the United States has been arrested for allegedly stabbing his wife, 81, to death after he didn’t want to eat pancakes she made for him. According to a statement released by the US Attorney’s Office for the District of Columbia, Steven Schwartz killed his wife Sharron Schwartz on December 10 with a kitchen knife. The 81-year-old was found inside her Washington DC home with stab injuries, while Mr Schwartz was also found inside the home with “self-inflicted injuries”.
Mr Schwartz allegedly plunged the carving knife into the 81-year-old over his eating habits. According to ABC 7, he told investigators that following a recent stroke, his ability to move and diet had changed “extensively” and his wife was trying to give him food to help him regain weight.
On the morning of the stabbing, Mr Schwartz said that his wife was trying to feed him a pancake and that he told her he could not eat it. After he said he wouldn’t eat the sweet breakfast item, Mr Schwartz told investigators that he heard a plate crashing against the wall, following which he grabbed the carving knife and threatened to cut himself with it. He reported that his next memory was seeing his wife lying on the ground.
“I killed her, Oh my Lord. I don’t remember it was a crazy fight!” the man allegedly said while sitting in the back of a police cruiser.
According to the New York Post, the 85-year-old described his wife as a “bit of a taskmaster”, but admitted she was doing it because she “loved him so much that (she) wanted him to be well and that she wanted her partner and protector back”.
After the incident, the neighbours heard screams from inside the home and called the couple’s son. “I stabbed her and then myself,” Ms Schwartz told his son before handing him the knife. He reportedly also stabbed himself, before officers deployed a Taser and disarmed the 85-year-old.
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Both he and his wife were rushed to a nearby hospital, where Ms Schwartz was announced dead. An autopsy report later found that she was stabbed once in the back and the blade pierced her heart.
Mr Schwartz was released from the hospital and was arrested on Thursday. He has been charged with second-degree murder while armed. “Defendant did not want to eat the pancakes she made and stabbed her in the back,” the US Attorney for the District of Columbia said in a release.
Mr Schwartz pleaded not guilty to the crime. He is being held without a bond. His next hearing is on January 2, 2024.
