A hubby who fatally shot his wife seven times in front of their two little children while driving to a family photo shoot told police it was self-defence and claimed he was “not the bad guy”.
Accused Mohammed Mondal, of Bright, in the US State of Indiana, was arrested and charged with murder after gunning down his wife, Stacy Mondal, on 6th November.
The shooting occurred while the couple and their two young children were driving to an appointment for a family photo session,
They allegedly began arguing in the car when Mondal, 45, claimed his wife reached for a gun in the open centre console.
Then, Mondal claimed he grabbed another 9 mm gun as 40-year-old Stacy pointed her firearm at him.
Mondal told investigators he “had to” open fire on his wife to “neutralise the threat”.
He struck her with a staggering total of seven bullets in front of their one-year-old and two-month-old sons in what he claimed was a move in self-defence.
A detective with the Dearborn County Sheriff’s Office said: “Mondal said that he remembered looking at the road, but does not know if he was still firing while he was driving as he went blank and said: ‘I’m not the bad guy’.”
Mondal claimed he called emergency services right after the incident but hung up.
Then, he called his neighbour Kenneth McAllister, who is a sergeant with the Dearborn County Sheriff’s Office.
He first told the sergeant he fired by accident, but later admitted to shooting on purpose while claiming he only did it to protect himself.
Sgt McAllister alerted deputies of the incident and they accompanied Mondal to the hospital.
When they arrived, deputies reportedly found a small, black handgun was lying on the passenger side floorboard near the victim’s feet.
She was wheeled into the emergency room with “little to no signs of life”, the officers said.
Hours later, she was pronounced dead at the hospital.
Sheriff Shane McHenry said the boys seemed unaware of what had happened.
Mondal was taken into custody and was charged with one count of murder and two counts of neglect of dependents.
During the interrogation, Mondal confessed that he and his wife had been having marital problems and claimed she was having an affair with two men in the neighbourhood.
He claimed that at least one of those men had been following them on the day of the incident.
He is currently being held at the Dearborn County Law Enforcement Centre.