Mother allegedly set afire by son dies

LUBBOCK, TX

Bertha Bradley, 69, died at University Medical Center in Lubbock late Monday morning, Shirley Ray Bradley said. She sustained third-degree burns to more than half of her body on May 9.

Police say her son, George James Bradley, set her on fire in a Lubbock apartment before going to a nearby school where he tried to assault a teacher. The school superintendent helped free the teacher.

George Bradley remained jailed Monday on charges of attempted murder, aggravated assault and attempted sexual assault. Mark Snodgrass, his attorney, didn't immediately return phone call seeking comment.

Scott Morris, a Lubbock County assistant district attorney, said he could not comment when asked if the attempted murder charge against George Bradley would be upgraded to a murder charge.

Family members said after the incident that they long feared George Bradley's violent temper but didn't know what sparked his alleged outburst, which happed on his daughter's 11th birthday.

In a tape of the 911 call to police, a woman in the school office is heard telling the dispatcher what the intruder wore and that he had a knife. Screams are heard in the background as the dispatcher asks whether the man is OK with her being on the phone.

The dispatcher then asks if the woman has anything with which to defend herself. Before she gets a response, the woman comes back on the line to say that police had arrived at the school.

Bradley recently spent 30 days at Lubbock Regional Mental Health and Mental Retardation Center, his sisters said. He was on medication before he went in for the evaluation and told those at the center that he was hearing voices in his head, they said.

At the end of the 30 days Bradley's family fought against his release, the sisters said. Cheryl Bozeman, one of Bradley's sisters, said May 10 that MHMR personnel told the family to take Bradley to Salvation Army. He was released from the center on May 2.