TLDR: my brother tried to stab me and my mother is asking for me to drop the charges and insists that she cannot choose between her children on which side to take in the situation.

This happened a few years ago but is still a major issue in my family. I (25F) am the youngest and only girl of my siblings. Me and my mom (50F) live in a different state and decided to visit home and my oldest brother (31M) offered to house us with his family. The first night there, my mom went out with some old friends and my brother and his girlfriend (32F) asked to hang out with me in their home for the night.

After their kids (4 kids between the ages of 9 months and 12) went to bed, we started drinking and talking about random things since this was the first time I had actually met this girlfriend and spent time with her. While talking, his girlfriend asked about our childhood and what he was like as a kid. And I answered honestly: he was a bad kid. He ran away, he spiked our mom’s boyfriends drinks with bleach, he fought at school almost daily and was suspended constantly until he dropped out. Something I thought was funny to joke about was not funny to him and he got angry. Me and his girlfriend laughed it off (we’re all very drunk at this point) but I could tell he was getting angrier and angrier. Then he asked me “if I just punched you right now it wouldn’t be funny would it?” Again, drunk me laughed it off thinking we were just talking about our lives and childhoods. We were not abused or neglected as children so I truly didn’t see this as me laughing at traumatic events or making fun of him.

And then in a split second he punched me. Over and over. I remember protecting myself as I fell and getting back up and throwing anything in front of me as I tried to move out of the way. And then I was back on the floor, mouth bleeding, disoriented and crawling to the couch for help. The kids ran into the room scared and crying and his 9 month old was crying hysterically. He was screaming and yelling at his girlfriend “it’s not funny! it’s not funny!” as she tried to calm him down. He even saw me on the couch crying and bleeding and threw a cup of alcohol in my face and called me a bitch. And then he said: “I hope you know you’re gonna fucking die tonight”.

I remember running into the bathroom and locking the door and I heard him searching desperately for a knife in the kitchen drawer. I called my mom as I hysterically cried and told her he was gonna kill me and she begged me to open a window and run. He began banging on the door, describing how he was going to stab me, gut me, as I tried to open the window; I think I even accepted at this point I was dead and just pondering how it would feel.

And then he stopped. I waited and realized my mom had begun breaking down the door to get to me because he was looking for a new knife to kill me with.

After this, I went to the hospital and although I had no broken bones, I was bleeding and my entire face was bruised and cut. I pressed charges against him and after almost 3 years, he was caught on a separate charge and now the case is moving forward this month.

My mom, in her opinion, has tried to stay neutral but I think in her way of staying neutral she has taken his side. She has told me that being beat was a “consequence” of saying rude things to him and that I’ve already won because he’s been in jail for months and should drop these charges since he’s facing other criminal charges.

Yesterday, I blew up and cried and told her she was stupid and dumb for ever suggesting that I get over this and I can’t believe she would want to be neutral and not take my side. She hung up the phone and we have not talked since.

I feel like I might be TA because I don’t have kids and I don’t understand what she might be going through having to choose between us. It’s also important to mention my brother has previously been diagnosed with a mental illness and has done violent behavior like breaking windows, stealing, going on car chases from police, and fighting before so I feel like our family has become so immune to his behavior that me pressing the issue and demanding accountability is making everyone uncomfortable. But I also feel like her seeing what I looked like after he beat me, hearing me describe what it felt like and how it has damaged me (I’ve been diagnosed with PTSD and anxiety) should automatically make her take my side and support my decision to take this to court.

AITA?