Woman told 911 that extinguisher beating was self-defense

A New Jersey woman told a 911 operator she repeatedly hit her husband in the head with a fire extinguisher because he hit her with a chair and smothered her with a pillow.

On the tape supplied by Burlington County officials, a distraught Laciana Tinsley tells the operator she hit her 74-year-old husband, Douglas, “too many times” and he was bleeding. She was not sure if he was conscious.

“Please send somebody because he looks so still,” she said.

Tinsley, 42, of Willingboro, was charged with murder in the Jan. 30 death.

She told the dispatcher she “blanked out” and was acting in self-defense, because he hit her with a chair.

“My husband, he was smothering me with a pillow,” she said. “I just kept beating him in the head because he kept trying to get up and come after me.”

A public defender representing Tinsley had asked that she be allowed to post bail, citing self-defense. A judge rejected the request