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In police interrogation video, Gurnee murder suspect says it was self-defense in a fight

David Brocksom repeatedly told police during an interview about his ex-wife's death that he feared for his life and acted in self-defense when he fought with her over a gun, according to a video played to a jury in Lake County court Thursday.

Brocksom, 46, of Kenosha, Wisconsin, also said in the video that he stepped into Beata Brocksom's Gurnee house after she moved out of the way about 4 a.m. Sept. 27, 2015, that their battle for the gun was "a hell of a fight," and that she had "pretty severe psychological issues."

The second day of testimony in the murder trial focused on the Gurnee police video taken after David Brocksom turned himself in as a suspect in the murder of Beata Brocksom.

He faces seven felony counts of first-degree murder in the death of his 48-year-old ex-wife. He also faces three felony counts of home invasion and one count of robbery.

David Brocksom said in the video he was with his kids in the Wisconsin Dells when his then-9-year-old daughter told him Beata Brocksom had molested her. After the kids went to sleep about 10:30 p.m., he left the hotel and drove to his ex-wife's house because he had to "let her know that I know" about what she was alleged to have done, he said on the video.

He said he knocked on the door and Beata Brocksom opened it and said, "What the (expletive) are you doing here?"

She backed away and he stepped in, he told police on the video. They argued, then she hit him in the forehead head with a gun, he said.

Beata Brocksom slept on a bed near an open window in the living room, he said in the video. After she hit him with the gun, the two fell on the mattress as they wrestled for the weapon, he said.

David Brocksom said Beata got her hand free at one point and hit him eight or 10 times in the face with the gun.

"I knew if I let go, she was going to shoot me," he said on video. "It was self-defense. I was trying to save my life."

Brocksom said he was "losing the fight" because she would pull her arms free and hit him with the gun.

The gun fired twice during the struggle, authorities said. One shot hit the mattress, and the second struck Beata Brocksom in the neck.

On the video, David Brocksom said he and his ex-wife were still holding the gun when they fell through the open window.

The struggle continued in the front yard, then across a driveway and into some bushes, where Beata Brocksom stopped struggling. He sat in the bushes and waited for police to show up. They never came, he said on the video.

David Brocksom said he went in the house, found his glasses that were knocked off during the struggle, then tried to stop the bleeding from deep cuts on his face. Later, he grabbed his ex-wife's two cellphones off a counter and left.

Authorities said Brocksom called a friend to pick up his children from the Wisconsin Dells, then turned himself in to police about 7 p.m.

He remains held in Lake County jail on $3 million bail.

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