BROOKLYN — A fight over a cat turned fatal when a career criminal viciously beat her 67-year-old mother inside her East Flatbush home, police sources said.
Barbara Kirby was left brain dead after her daughter Chandra Sutton, 50, attacked her inside their home on Snyder Avenue near Troy Avenue Saturday around 10:50 p.m. Kirby died of her injuries Monday night, police and prosecutors said.
The chaos began when Sutton got into a verbal spat with her uncle about bringing a cat into her mom’s house. The uncle told her not to because Kirby had asthma and was allergic, sources said.
Sutton, who has more than 75 prior arrests stretching back to 1982, including for prostitution, returned to her mother’s house later that night and began arguing with her before assaulting her, sources said.
Kirby’s husband heard cries for help, then found his wife on the floor bleeding from the head with Sutton nearby, prosecutors said.
Kirby suffered a half-inch gash above her eye and later began foaming from the mouth. She was intubated at Kings County Hospital and ultimately died Monday night, sources and prosecutors said.
"The cause of death is complications of cardiac arrest following physical altercation due to hypertensive cardiovascular disease. The manner of death is homicide," Medical Examiner Spokeswoman Julie Bolcer said.
Investigators found broken glass and overturned furniture strewn about the home.
Sutton was initially charged with assault and ordered held on $15,000 bail, but those charges will likely be upgraded, law-enforcement sources said.
Her lawyer could not immediately be reached for comment.
