‘He Wanted Her To End This’: Florida Woman Shoots Terminally Ill Husband To Death, Police Say

A woman was arrested in connection with the fatal shooting of her terminally ill husband at a Florida hospital, authorities said.

On Jan. 22, Ellen Gilland, 76, was denied bond at a court hearing after she was charged with the premeditated first-degree murder of her husband, 77-year-old Jerry Gilland, at AdventHealth Hospital in Daytona Beach the prior day, WOFL reported.

According to online records, Ellen Gilland also faces three counts of aggravated assault with a deadly weapon.

Officers responded to AdventHealth Hospital around 11:35 a.m. on Jan. 21 after receiving a report of a shot fired in a patient’s room on the eleventh floor.

Officers at the scene learned Ellen Gilland was barricaded inside her husband’s room. Hostage negotiators spoke with the elderly suspect for around four hours before officers used a flash bang and taser to get the gun and take her into custody, according to WOFL.

Daytona Beach Police Chief Jakari Young said at a press conference covered by the station that the couple “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 noted detectives believe the husband and wife discussed the alleged plan as a murder-suicide.

A neighbor of the Gillands describe the pair to WOFL as “super nice."