Wife, Husband Planned Fatal Shooting in Hospital for Weeks

DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. (AP) The plan had been in the works for weeks: Ellen Gilland, 76, would fatally shoot her terminally ill, 77-year-old husband, Jerry, and then kill herself. But after shooting him in the head in an 11th-floor hospital room, she couldnt carry through with the rest.

Instead, still armed, Gilland was in a four-hour standoff with police until officers were able to use a nonlethal explosive to distract and take her into custody.

That's according to the police account of the shooting and its aftermath Saturday on a floor for terminally ill patients at AdventHealth Daytona Beach near the central Florida coast.

The couple hatched the plan three weeks ago, Daytona Beach Police Chief Jakari Young said at a news conference over the weekend. During a conversation, he said, they decided that if Jerry Gilland's unnamed illness took a turn for the worse, he wanted her to end this."

Apparently the goal was for him to do it, but he didnt have the strength so she had to carry it out, Young said.