‘I finally did it, I killed them,’ son said after shooting parents, Kentucky cops say

A Louisville man is accused of killing his parents and then admitting it to a family member, police say.

“I finally did it, I killed them,’ Thomas Hatfield Jr. is accused of saying Sunday after the shooting. “I tried to blow my brains out, but I can’t die.”

The family member whom police said Hatfield admitted the murders to called authorities and directed them to a home on the south end of Louisville. Officers found a man and woman — Hatfield’s parents — dead from gunshot wounds, according to an arrest report.

As Hatfield left his relative’s home, he intentionally crashed his car into a parked vehicle, Louisville police said. He was found with a self-inflicted gunshot wound, according to police.

The handgun in Hatfield’s possession was the same caliber as the casings recovered at the home, police said.

Police said Hatfield has “significant history of domestic violence incidents.” He lived with his parents, records show.

He was charged with assault in September after punching an unnamed woman “over issues with a doctor’s appointment,” a citation states. His parents previously had an emergency protective order with their son, police said, but it was dropped.

Last March, the father was involved in an incident with his son that resulted in the dad’s arrest, according to records. The two had a verbal argument over the son “taking money from their account because he was a drug addict, ... keeping them up all hours of the night, drinking constantly and yelling at his wife,” an arrest citation states.

The father, Thomas Hatfield Sr., struck his son in the head with an axe handle during the argument and was charged with assault, police said.

Thomas Hatfield Jr. also has numerous assault arrests, as well convictions for terroristic threatening and violating an EPO, according to court records.

He is scheduled to be arraigned Wednesday, court records show.

This story was originally published January 12, 2021 at 8:32 AM with the headline "‘I finally did it, I killed them,’ son said after shooting parents, Kentucky cops say."