Cops: Wife Kills Husband in Hospital as Part of Pact

'She's very sad, it's a tough situation'
By Evann Gastaldo,  Newser Staff
Posted Jan 23, 2023 3:00 AM CST
Updated Jan 23, 2023 5:16 AM CST
Elderly Woman Allegedly Kills Husband as Part of Suicide Pact
Stock photo   (Getty Images / carlballou)

Police say an elderly woman who had a suicide pact with her ill husband fatally shot him when he was too weak to do so himself—but that she then could not go through with shooting herself. The Florida woman barricaded herself in her husband's hospital room in Daytona Beach after the alleged shooting Saturday morning, and after an hours-long hospital lockdown involving hostage negotiators, she was arrested that afternoon, CNN reports. Police had to use a flash bang and a taser before she dropped the gun, they say.

Police say the couple, ages 76 and 77, made the pact because the husband had health problems, which have not been disclosed. "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," the police chief says. The husband planned to shoot himself, police say, but was not strong enough to do so. Of the wife, the chief adds, "She's very sad, it's a tough situation."

She was charged with one count of premeditated first-degree murder and three counts of aggravated assault with a deadly weapon, and was denied bond during her first court appearance Sunday, Fox Orlando reports. Police are investigating how the gun was brought into the hospital, and whether the building has metal detectors. (More Florida stories.)

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