Volusia County authorities arrested a 76-year-old lady for shooting and murdering her terminally sick spouse.
Who is Ellen Gilland?
Sunday was Ellen Gilland’s first court appearance on many counts, including first-degree murder.
She’s detained.
“Based upon the nature of the charge, Mrs. Gilland, I am going to detain you (on) no bond on the murder charge and the remaining counts and then you’ll be scheduled for a future court date,” said Judge Mary Jolley.
Gilland faces three aggravated assault charges.
Daytona Beach police responded to the AdventHealth Daytona Beach shooting Saturday morning.
Police claimed Gilland shot her husband, 77-year-old Jerry Gilland, and locked herself in his room.
Police said he was the sole patient.
“Upon arrival, our officers were led to the 11th floor, where they discovered an elderly female who had presumably shot her terminally sick husband,” Daytona Beach police Chief Jakari Young said at a press conference.
Officers said personnel and patients near the room were evacuated.
Nobody was hurt.
Young claimed no hospital workers or patients were threatened.
After bargaining, the wife was arrested at 3 p.m.
The Daytona Beach Police Department found the New Smyrna Beach pair plotted this weeks before.
What did Ellen Gilland do?
They believe the duo had a contract three weeks ago to commit murder-suicide if the terminally sick spouse continued to decline.
“Apparently, because he was terminally ill, they had a chat about it, and they really planned this around three weeks ago that if he continued to worsen that he wanted her to terminate this,” Young added. “Obviously, we’re wondering how she smuggled that pistol into the hospital, but this was planned.”
Police believe the spouse was supposed to shoot but was too weak.
Hostage negotiators took hours to arrest the lady after receiving the gunfire report at 11:30 a.m. Saturday.
Police described clearing the neighbouring rooms “logistical nightmare.”
“Because that 11th floor is made up of terminally ill individuals,” Young remarked.
He says they couldn’t evacuate the floor, but Gilland never left the shooting chamber.
“She never put the pistol down,” Young added. “So we’d have to infer that if we rushed in there, we didn’t sufficiently explain that it may have developed into a gunfight.”
So they distracted her to drop the gun.
Young stated SWAT utilizes a flashbang. “Utilized. It makes a loud noise like a — you know that. Luckily, a flash-bang distracted her.”
Gilland was arrested after being bagged.
“It’s a horrible scenario, so her spouse (was) terminally ill, so she was already sad just based on her husband being terminally ill and knowing that the end was coming,” Young said.
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