Police: Woman fatally shoots dying husband at hospital

Authored by apnews.com and submitted by oliverkloezoff

DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. (AP) — A woman fatally shot her terminally ill husband inside a Florida hospital on Saturday and then barricaded herself in his room for four hours before surrendering, Daytona Beach officials said.

Ellen Gilland, 76, told officers that her 77-year-old husband Jerry Gilland had been ill for some time and they had planned the shooting together, police spokeswoman Carrie McCallister said.

After shooting her husband at about 11:30 a.m., she refused to come out until about 3:30 p.m. after negotiating with police, McCallister said. Ellen Gilland did not harm herself and no one else was wounded. Part of the hospital was evacuated and some doctors, nurses and others took cover in locked closets and rooms.

McCallister said no charges were immediately announced.

AdventHealth officials did not immediately respond to an email seeking comment.

Elevener on January 22nd, 2023 at 03:48 UTC »

My wife was at work in this hospital when this happened. She said the response was a shitshow.

The police have said the woman and her husband agreed on this weeks ago, he was to shoot himself but became too weak in recent days. The woman was supposed to kill herself but couldn't do it. I suspect that's why she barricaded for so long. The police eventually used a flashbang grenade to stun her and take her into custody.

The hospital went into panic mode when one nurse wasn't located, she was hiding and terrified. One doctor was tweeting from a closet asking people to let him know when it was safe to come out.

Hospital security did not relay any relevant info to other floors during all of this, workers had to use social media to see what was happening. So for 4 hours, the hospital was on lockdown and nothing was being relayed to staff.

Pretty sure things are gonna change there after this fiasco. My wife tells of stories of people smoking pot in bathrooms, fights, etc etc and now a botched murder/suicide pact.

DoYouEvenLurkBro on January 22nd, 2023 at 01:15 UTC »

We have more humane methods of death for our pets then we do our family, friends, and ourselves.

Troynocerous on January 22nd, 2023 at 00:15 UTC »

My Grandpa recently passed using the MAiD program and honestly he would have done it the day it was offered if they would have let him. I can’t imagine him having to suffer the way he did near the end without that option as his quality of life was non-existent at that point.