A 61-year-old man is dead because his 71-year-old fellow nursing home resident allegedly beat him to death during a fight about using the washing machine.
Police in Joliet, Illinois, said in a press release they were called around 9:30 p.m. Thursday to Salem Village Nursing and Rehabilitation for a report of an assault on the sixth floor. When they arrived they found the unresponsive victim in a laundry room.
Detectives later learned the defendant, William Paschall, became angry about the victim’s use of the washing machine. A staff member tried to intervene, but Paschall allegedly punched the victim in the head multiple times and used the victim’s walker to strike him. The victim fell to the floor. Staff called 911 and rendered medical aid. The victim, who has not yet been publicly identified, was pronounced dead.
William Paschall allegedly punched and used a walker to kill a man at a nursing home in Joliet, Illinois, because he was mad about the victim’s laundry use. (Mug shot: Will County Sheriff’s Office; Screenshot: WLS/YouTube)
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Paschall was detained and taken to the Joliet Police Department for an interview. The Will County States’ Attorney’s Office approved charges of first-degree murder and aggravated battery of a person 60 years of age or older. He’s at the Will County Jail without bond. The nursing home declined to comment.
The victim’s family told Chicago ABC affiliate WLS that they are seeking answers to how this could have happened. Kayla Martinez, the victim’s niece, told the outlet that the nursing home called to say he had gotten into an altercation and hit his head. They didn’t say he was violently attacked. Martinez, who only identified her uncle as Michael, called it “a very senseless act.”
“I want to know why? Why wasn’t the fight stopped?” Martinez said. “They told us there was a male supervisor that couldn’t break up the fight because they were quote unquote ‘two really big guys.’ They didn’t do their part. My uncle was the kindest person you could meet. He would give you the shirt off his back even if he didn’t have one.”
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