(CNN) — A 76-year-old girl is in custody after fatally shooting her terminally unwell husband within the head in what police say was an meant murder-suicide at a hospital in Daytona Beach, Florida, on Saturday.
The terminally unwell man, 77, was hospitalized at the Advent Health Hospital and made a plan with his spouse three weeks in the past to “end it” ought to his well being worsen, Daytona Beach Police Chief Jakari E. Young stated in a news convention. Police didn’t specify the person’s sickness.
The man meant to show the gun on himself however was bodily too weak to take action, police stated. His spouse, who indented to take her personal life after, stated she “couldn’t go through with it,” in line with Young.
The girl then barricaded herself within the hospital room.
Officers responded to the hospital shortly after 11:30 a.m. and hostage negotiators made contact with the lady, whose identification hasn’t been launched. She was taken into police custody at roughly 3 p.m., Young stated.
Keeping different sufferers on the eleventh flooring, the place the hostage situation happened, was a “logistical nightmare” as many sufferers have been on ventilators and couldn’t be simply evacuated, he added.
The girl is in custody and could possibly be awaiting a first-degree homicide cost, in line with Young.
“She’s very sad, it’s a tough situation,” Young stated.
It’s unclear how the lady entered the hospital with a gun and if the hospital had a metallic detection safety system. The precise gun used within the shooting additionally stays unclear.
CNN reached out to AdventHealth for remark.
There is now not a police presence at the hospital, in line with Young.
Dr. Joshua Horenstein, a heart specialist at Advent Health Hospital, was working within the emergency division when he realized of the shooting incident.
“Someone came in screaming in the emergency department that this was not a drill and to shelter in place,” Horenstein advised CNN whereas hiding in a provide room with a nurse.
Horenstein stated he was lastly capable of go away the availability room after roughly 90 minutes.