A 61-year-old woman confessed to fatally shooting her husband because she was "tired."
Doris Winters, of Milwaukee, Wisconsin, was arrested after attempting to flee the apartment where she had shot the man, 49-year-old Aerion Winters.
Witnesses directed police to Winters' location after seeing her walk away from the scene.
Officers said the woman dropped her handgun before they took her into custody and secured the weapon.
Highlights
- Doris Winters shot her husband in the chest and back during an argument at her apartment in Milwaukee, Wisconsin.
- The victim had gone to the apartment to collect some of his belongings when Winters threatened him with a gun.
- Winters told police she committed the crime because she was “tired" of her husband.
Image credits: Ahmet Kurt / Unsplash (not the actual photo)
Trigger warning: This article contains mentions of domestic violence.
A witness who was present at the scene said that Winters and her husband were living in separate residences.
The witness stated that he drove the victim to Winters' apartment on May 31, so he could pick up some of his belongings.
Image credits: David von Diemar / Unsplash
When the victim entered the apartment, he and Winters began arguing. The witness claimed he stood between them to try to calm the situation, but Winters picked up her weapon from the living room and commented that it was loaded.
The victim then walked upstairs and spoke briefly to Winters' mother. "The defendant told him not to talk to her mother, and the victim responded by calling the defendant a 'b***,'" the complaint reads.
This "angered" the woman, who shot her husband in the back and chest.
The 61-year-old woman explained that she was "just tired" of her husband
Image credits: Milwaukee Police Department
The witness and a friend, who had been waiting outside, carried the victim out of the apartment. Despite attempts to save his life, the man succumbed to his gunshot wounds.
The victim, Aerion Winters, had gone to the apartment to pick up some of his belongings
Image credits: Viral Hub / Facebook
After Winters was placed in a police car, she allegedly admitted to the crime in comments captured by squad cameras. She said, "He called me a b*** for the last time, and I just shot him. I just shot him…"
"I just grabbed my gun and shot him because I'm just tired. I know I shouldn't have shot him, but I'm just tired."
At the police station, the woman said she shot her husband when he turned away from her during their argument.
If convicted, she faces up to 60 years in prison, according to court documents.
Image credits: Maxim Hopman / Unsplash (not the actual photo)
Social media users shared their interpretations of the woman's statement, with one person writing, "She didn't say 'I'm tired'.. she said 'I'm JUST tired'.. that tells me she been putting up with his mess for far too long.. not justifying it.. just making sense of it."
"But he wasn't even staying with her; he was living somewhere else, he went to get the rest of his belongings. She was mad that that man had left and was MOVING out and moving on; she didn't want him with anyone else," speculated someone else.
The two started arguing, and Winters shot her husband in the chest and back
Image credits: fox26houston
A third commented, "Every woman reading this story knows exactly why she did it," to which a separate user replied, "That is true sometimes we can only take so much."
"An honest answer is the best," another user chimed in. "I get it. Marriage isn't easy. Next time, just walk away, and never come back."
An additional commenter wrote, "She probably was tired mentally physically emotionally and got fed up with him. We don't know what was going on in their house."
Image credits: cottonbro studio / Pexels (not the actual photo)v
The Milwaukee Police Department said crime, overall, is down 12% through the first quarter of 2025. However, there has been a 9% increase in the number of homicides, year-to-date, compared to 2024.
In 2022, Wisconsin reportedly saw the largest increase in domestic violence-related fatalities in the last two decades.
Milwaukee Police Chief Jeffrey Norman said addressing domestic homicides is an "all-hands-on-deck issue."
"As we know, the pandemic really had done a number on our community, and we're still dealing with mental health and trauma that's going on as a residual. We understand that we cannot have one particular solution to this. (It) is not something that's going to be eradicated overnight."
"He called me a b*** for the last time, and I just shot him," said the Wisconsin woman, who faces up to 60 years in prison
Image credits: Stock.Foto.Touch / stock.adobe (not the actual photo)
Carmen Pitre, president of the Sojourner Family Peace Center, told WPR, "COVID is not the cause, but it made everything that was hard, worse."
She said there's a "normalization of violence" in Milwaukee and that many people have been exposed to it since childhood, growing up "believing that this is the way."
"We have a lot of work to do to untangle that and teach ourselves and heal ourselves and teach our young people that love and violence don't go together," Pitre highlighted.
Social media users reacted to the news of the homicide, particularly to the woman's explanation of her crime
