At a press conference, Daytona Beach Police Chief Jakari Young said that a woman from New Smyrna Beach could be charged with first-degree murder for shooting and killing her terminally ill husband at AdventHealth hospital in Daytona Beach on Saturday morning. Police believe the couple planned the killing together.
Ellen Gilland, who is 76 years old, is being held by police after a standoff in the hospital room where her husband was being treated. At 11:35 a.m., police were called to the scene of the shooting. Gilland wouldn’t leave the room at 301 Medical Memorial Parkway, which is a hospital. Young said she was going to turn the gun on herself, but she changed her mind.
“Apparently because (her husband) 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 worse, that … he wanted her to end this,” Young said.
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A news release from the police department said that while they talked to Gilland, other patients and staff were moved out of the area. Young called it a “logistical nightmare” because the shooting happened on the 11th floor, where there are patients who are dying and are on ventilators. Authorities didn’t have enough room to evacuate the whole floor, so they only did the most important rooms.
Young said that the fight was only in Jerry Gilland’s room. Young said that they still don’t know how his wife got a gun into the hospital. He said that the woman did not say she would shoot anyone else, but she did not put down her gun. The police stopped her with a flash-bang device and a non-lethal round. Young told people who are having trouble to ask for help.
He said it was a “very tragic” situation, but he was proud of how the police handled it. “My hostage negotiators were able to talk to the wife, and that conversation went on until about 3 p.m., when we were finally able to take her into custody,” said Young.
The SWAT team and the team that talks to people who are being held hostage were part of the response.
Young said, “It’s a sad situation because it shows that none of us are safe from life’s trials and tribulations.”
Gilland was taken to Volusia County Branch Jail, according to the police. The police did not say what Jerry Gilland, her 77-year-old husband, had been sick with or how long he had been sick. Young said that no one else was hurt in the accident.
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