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A 76-year-old woman has been booked on several charges, including the first-degree murder of her terminally ill husband. According to WESH, the woman is being held without bond.
The woman, named Ellen Gilland, also faces “three counts of aggravated assault,” as reported by the outlet.
Daytona Beach police officers responded to the shooting at AdventHealth on Saturday morning. Responding officers stated that Gilland shot her husband. And “confined herself to his room.”
Upon arrival, our officers were directed to the 11th floor, where they encountered an elderly female who had apparently shot her terminally ill husband.
Upon further investigation, it was discovered that the couple planned the shooting weeks prior. According to police, the couple made a murder-suicide pact. And Gilland was to kill her husband if his health took a turn for the worse.
Apparently, because he was terminally ill, they had a conversation about it, and they actually planned this approximately three weeks ago that if he continued to take a turn for the worst that he wanted her to end this. Obviously, we’re unsure how she brought that gun into the hospital, but this was planned.
Authorities added that the husband initially planned to kill himself, but he became too weak.
Police received a call about the shooting around 11:30 a.m. When they arrived at the scene, they were tasked with clearing out the surrounding rooms. Officers called the experience a “logistical nightmare.”
Because that 11th floor is made up of terminally ill patients, so pretty much all the patients on that floor are on ventilators.
The officers did not have room to evacuate the floor but Gilland never left the room with her husband. However, Gilland did put the gun at other witnesses, ordering them to leave the room.
She never put the gun down, so she never specifically made a threat that she was going to shoot any of us, but she never put the gun down. So we would have to assume that, you know, if we were to rush in there, we didn’t effectively communicate that it could have turned into a shootout situation.
Officers reportedly used a “flash bang” device to distract Gulland. And make her drop the gun.
It’s called a flash bang that the SWAT team uses. They use it. It just makes a loud noise. It’s like a — pretty sure you’re familiar with that. So they threw in a flash bang to distract her, and luckily it worked.
After negotiation, the woman was taken into custody around 3 p.m.
It’s a tough situation, so her husband (was) terminally ill, so she was already in a depressed state just based on her husband being terminally ill and knowing that the end was near.
According to WESH, it is unclear if the hospital had metal detectors. And how the woman was able to get the gun inside of the facility.
