CNN
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A 76-year-old woman is behind bars after killing her terminally ill husband in what police say was an attempted suicide at a Daytona Beach, Florida, hospital on Saturday.
The terminally ill man, 77, was hospitalized at Advent Health Hospital and made a plan with his wife three weeks ago to “make ends meet” if his health worsened, Daytona Beach Police Chief Jakari E. Young said at a news conference. Police have not released the man’s condition.
The man wanted to shoot himself but was too weak to do so, police said. His wife, who later tried to kill herself, said she “couldn’t do it,” Young said.
The woman then locked herself in the hospital room.
Police responded to the hospital shortly after 11:30 a.m. and negotiators made contact with the woman, who has not been identified. He was taken into police custody around 3 p.m., Young said.
Keeping some patients on the 11th floor, where the seizure took place, was “dangerous” as many patients were on ventilators and could not be evacuated, he added.
The woman is in jail and is expected to be charged with first-degree murder, according to Young.
“It’s very sad, it’s hard,” Young said.
It is unclear how the woman entered the hospital with the gun and whether the hospital has metal detectors. The exact gun used in the shooting has not been identified.
CNN has reached out to AdventHealth for comment.
There are no police officers at the hospital, according to Young.
Dr. Joshua Horenstein, a cardiologist at Advent Health, was working in the emergency department when he heard about the shooting.
“Someone came screaming to the emergency department that this wasn’t a drill and it was a shelter,” Horenstein told CNN while hiding in a restroom with a nurse.
Horenstein said he was able to get out of the store about 90 minutes later.
