Police say an argument over food escalated into an attack inside a Whitehaven home, leaving the woman hospitalized with a serious head injury.

MEMPHIS, Tenn. — A 27-year-old Memphis man is facing an attempted second-degree murder charge after police say he struck his mother in the head with an aluminum baseball bat during an argument at the home they shared in the Whitehaven area.

DeAngelo Billingsley also faces a domestic assault charge in connection with the Sept. 5 incident at a home on Bonita Avenue, according to court records and local reporting. Police said the woman suffered a serious wound to her forehead and was taken to a hospital in critical condition. Authorities allege the confrontation began during a dispute about food and escalated before Billingsley entered or approached his mother’s bedroom with the bat. Billingsley was detained and later booked into the Shelby County Jail. Reports published immediately after his arrest said his bonds totaled $52,000, including an amount connected to an earlier case involving his mother.

The case began with a call for help at the Bonita Avenue residence. Memphis police officers who arrived there encountered the injured homeowner, according to reporting based on the arrest affidavit. She was still able to communicate with first responders at the scene and told them that she had been arguing with her son. The dispute involved her not preparing food for him, she said. Investigators described what followed as a rapid escalation from an argument to physical violence. The woman told police that Billingsley came into her bedroom with a metal baseball bat and moved toward her. Authorities have not publicly released a fuller account of what happened immediately before the confrontation or said whether anyone else was inside the home.

According to the affidavit, the mother and son struggled over the bat before Billingsley allegedly gained control of it and struck her in the head. Police described the woman’s resulting injury as critical, and local television station WMC reported that she required lifesaving treatment after being rushed to a hospital. The available reports describe a laceration to her forehead but do not provide additional medical details. Her name has not been broadly identified in the principal reports reviewed for this story, and no reliable subsequent public report located through Oct. 20 provided an updated account of her condition. The absence of a later update does not establish whether her condition improved, worsened or remained unchanged.

Investigators also relied on the woman’s identification of her son. Local reporting said that by the time officers followed up at the hospital, she was unable to speak with investigators. She was nevertheless able to identify Billingsley as the person who had injured her when police showed her a photograph. That identification followed the statement she had already given at the house. Authorities have not publicly described whether investigators recovered the bat as evidence, whether the home was searched under a warrant or whether forensic testing was conducted. Those details may exist in investigative or court files but were not contained in the reports reviewed for this article.

Police say Billingsley gave investigators an account that substantially matched his mother’s description of the confrontation. According to court documents cited by Law&Crime and Memphis news outlets, he acknowledged taking an aluminum bat from his bedroom, moving toward his mother with it and struggling with her over the bat. Authorities say he also acknowledged regaining possession of the bat and striking her. Police attributed the start of the confrontation to a dispute over not getting food. Those statements are allegations contained in the criminal investigation and court records; the filing of charges does not establish Billingsley’s guilt, and the prosecution would have to prove its case in court.

The attempted second-degree murder charge places the allegations in a more serious legal category than the accompanying domestic assault count. Tennessee law classifies second-degree murder as a Class A felony, while criminal attempt generally reduces the classification of an attempted offense by one level. State legislative materials therefore describe attempted second-degree murder as a Class B felony. The charge itself does not mean a court has found that Billingsley intended to kill his mother or that prosecutors have proved the elements required for conviction. Those questions belong to the criminal process and depend on the evidence presented, the applicable law and any rulings or findings made as the case proceeds.

The bond total reported after Billingsley’s arrest also reflected an earlier case involving his mother. WMC and WREG reported that $50,000 was tied to the new case and another $2,000 was associated with an alleged violation of bond conditions in a 2024 case. In that earlier matter, according to the local reports, Billingsley’s mother accused him of breaking the windshield of her car after she had told him to leave her home. Court records cited by WMC indicated that Billingsley was again living with his mother when the September 2026 incident occurred. The prior allegation should not be treated as proof of the new charges, but it helps explain why the reported bond total exceeded the amount set in the current case alone.

The combination of the earlier case and the new allegations may also become relevant to decisions about pretrial release, although the publicly available reports reviewed here do not establish what arguments prosecutors or defense attorneys later made about bond. Law&Crime reported shortly after the arrest that Billingsley was scheduled for a bond hearing. No reliable later report located in the search for this article confirmed whether that hearing changed his release conditions, whether the case was transferred to another court, whether a grand jury acted or whether a plea was entered. Without a current court docket that can be independently verified, those procedural developments remain unknown and should not be inferred from the initial arrest reports.

The allegation that the conflict began over food drew attention in early coverage, but police records describe the food dispute only as the immediate argument preceding the alleged assault. The available evidence does not establish a broader motive, and authorities have not publicly offered a psychological explanation for Billingsley’s alleged conduct. It would therefore go beyond the record to characterize the dispute as the sole cause of the violence or to speculate about the relationship between Billingsley and his mother. What investigators have alleged is narrower: an argument occurred, the confrontation became physical, a bat was involved and the woman suffered an injury serious enough to require emergency hospital treatment.

Publicly accessible reporting reviewed for this story had not established a final disposition of the attempted murder and domestic assault charges or provided a confirmed update on the mother’s recovery. Billingsley is presumed innocent unless and until he is convicted. The next verified developments would come from court records, prosecutors, defense counsel or law enforcement as the criminal case moves forward.

Author note: Last updated Oct. 20, 2026.