Vinayak Shanbhag, 33, has been charged with attempted first degree murder after his father was found grievously injured and bleeding in the family's Holly Hill home in Florida on Saturday morning, according to an arrest report.
Vinayak confessed to beating his sleeping father with a sledgehammer because of a comment he made after a night of "playing puzzles", police said.
The victim's wife told police she went to check on her husband Pandurang Shanbhag, whom she has a separate room from because of her arthritis, at 6 am when she heard him coughing in bed.
The wife told police he did not say anything else and she called 911, the New York Daily News reported.
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"He thought about the statement his father said to him all night and that is when he decided to beat his father," police said.
Pandurang was listed in critical but stable condition yesterday at Halifax Health Medical Center, Holly Hill Police Chief Mark Barker said.
Vinayak majored in chemistry at Bethune-Cookman and graduated in 2000.
The arrest report described officers seeing blood on a car's front headlight and the ground surrounding it. Vinayak was found sitting on a couch next to his mother.
Scanning the home's rooms, an officer reported seeing blood "all over every wall in the bedroom" where the victim had been lying.
A bloody sledgehammer was left on the floor of the bedroom.
Vinayak told police he had been violent with other family members in the past.