A Florida woman is facing criminal charges after fatally shooting her terminally ill husband at a hospital as part of a murder-suicide pact the couple had made several weeks ago, Daytona police said. Ellen Gilland, 76, told authorities that her husband, Jerry Gilland, 77, had been sick for quite some time and that the pair had planned the shooting.
"Because he was terminally ill, they had a conversation about it, and they actually planned this approximately three weeks ago. And if he continued to turn for the worst, he wanted her to end this)," Daytona Police Chief Jakari Young said during a news conference.
The incident happened Saturday just before 11:30 a.m. when Ellen Gilland reportedly brought a gun inside AdventHealth Hospital in Daytona Beach, Florida, went to her husband's 11th-floor room and shot him in the head, the New York Times reported.
Authorities were called to the hospital on Saturday after a report of a person shot, according to a news release.
When officers arrived, Ellen Gilland was barricaded inside her husband's room and refused to drop the weapon. They had an hours-long standoff with the woman and were able to "establish a dialogue with her," using a "distractionary device to get her to put the gun down long enough for us to hit her with [something] less lethal," Young said, referring to using something besides deadly force.
Ellen Gilland was taken into custody around 3:30 p.m. on a charge of first-degree murder, WCTV reported. Young said she was supposed to take her own life as well but didn't follow through with the plan.
"Initially, I think the plan was a murder-suicide so she killed him and then she was going to turn the gun on herself but decided she couldn't go through with it," he said.
AdventHealth has released a statement.
“We are devastated by the tragedy that unfolded at the AdventHealth Daytona Beach campus today, and our prayers are with those impacted," the organization noted, according to a statement obtained by NBC News.
According to its website, AdventHealth is a Christian-based health care system with nearly 50 hospital campuses in nine states and is dedicated to making communities healthier.
Young said the husband reportedly knew the shooting would happen that day.
After the shooting, authorities evacuated staff and patients from surrounding rooms during the standoff. "This was somewhat of a logistical nightmare, which is why again I'm very, very proud of my team," Young said, according to NBC News, as he praised the officers for getting people out safely.
The police chief said the 11th floor is reserved for terminally ill patients. "Pretty much all the patients on that floor are on ventilators so they didn't have the room to evacuate that entire floor, so they evacuated the rooms where it was most important to get them out of the way," Young explained.
It is unclear how long Jerry Gilland had been hospitalized. No one else was injured inside the hospital, according to the news release.
Jerry Gilland had initially planned to kill himself but didn't have the strength because of his illness.
Young said the wife seemingly went through with the plan and "carried it out for him."
“Even after the initial shooting, she never tried to get up and leave, so everything was confined to the room,” he said at the news conference.
Ellen Gilland was taken to Volusia County Jail on Saturday afternoon, per the Times.
“She’s very sad,” Young said. “This is obviously a — it’s a tough situation.”
