Woman arrested for alleged attack
An 80-year-old grandmother from Athol was arrested Christmas Day for allegedly attacking her granddaughter’s husband with a knife after she threatened to cut off his testicles.
Gertrude Ankrum remained in the Kootenai County Jail on Wednesday on felony charges of aggravated assault. Her bail was set at $5,000.
The 5-foot-4-inch retiree was arrested about 4 p.m. on Christmas Day after her granddaughter called the Sheriff’s Department.
When Deputy Patrick Meehan asked Ankrum if she had threatened to cut off the 39-year-old man’s testicles, she admitted she had.
“Yes, I did that,” she said, according to the sheriff’s report.
Ankrum’s granddaughter said Ankrum became upset on Christmas Eve after one of her great-grandchildren sat in her chair.
Ankrum allegedly threatened to “cut up the chair with an axe,” according to the report.
On Christmas morning, Ankrum refused to come out of her bedroom, the granddaughter told Meehan.
When she tried to bring her grandmother some breakfast around 11 a.m., Ankrum reportedly refused the meal and told the granddaughter “she was just going to kill herself,” the report said.
The granddaughter said she called an agency that provides in-home nursing care, and they told her to call law enforcement and take away any sharp objects Ankrum might have, the report said.
When the granddaughter and her husband began removing knives, scissors and other sharp objects from Ankrum’s room, she became angry and pulled out a knife that had been overlooked. That’s when she allegedly threatened her granddaughter’s husband.
He told Meehan that the knife had come into contact with his shirt but did not cut him or the shirt.
The granddaughter pushed Ankrum with a broom, and the woman fell back onto her bed. The victim told Meehan that was when he was able to get the knife away from Ankrum.
He said he was in fear for his life, according to the report.
Ankrum told the deputy she wasn’t planning to hurt herself but was upset that she might have to go to a nursing home.