California: 93-year-old charged with murder after wife fatally shot in grocery store parking

California: A 93-year-old man has been charged with murder after fatally shooting his 86-year-old wife on Saturday, January 3, in their car at a grocery store parking lot, at Mowry Avenue. He has been married to his wife for the past 60 years.

The victim has been identified as 86-year-old Patricia "Patty" Hocking, a resident of Fremont, California.

According to police reports, the incident took place on January 3, when the suspect himself called officers and reported them about the incident and told them that he wanted to surrender himself.

Upon reaching the place of the incident, the officials noticed that the suspect was standing next to the vehicle in which his wife, the victim, was lying motionless on the back seat of the vehicle.

After that police checked the body and transported the same for a post-mortem examination to know the exact cause of her death and after that they also arrested the 93-year-old suspect and took him to the police station.

Where the officers interrogated him and respondent=d to which the suspect told the official that “killing his wife was necessary as she was really sick and was in an intense pain including diabetes."

Following which the police referred the matter to the court where during the hearing  the neighbours of the suspect also supported him and testified for him. The neighbours also told the magistrate that “Patty was in chronic pain and had limited mobility, due to which Hocking acted as her primary caretaker.”

However, the prosecutor argued that the suspect was planning to kill his wife for an entire month and on January 3, 2026, he took his wife in a car and at a parking lot of the grocery store he shot his wife.

After considering all the arguments, Justice charged the suspect Hocking with murder and with a gun-related enhancement and ordered the personnel to hold him in a Santa Rita Jail without any bail.

His next hearing was scheduled for January 5, but was postponed to an undisclosed date as he had no prior criminal records.