Husband Shoots Ailing Wife, Then Self Inside New Jersey Hospital

Toms River, NJ (AHN) - An 88-year-old man shot dead his 87-year-old wife before shooting himself inside a patient room at the Community Medical Center in Toms River, New Jersey in an apparent mercy killing-suicide on Friday.

The shooter did not die but was seriously wounded and taken to the Jersey Shore University Medical Center in Neptune, according to police.

From 40 to 50 police cars rushed to the hospital in response to the shooting and a 10-minute lockdown of the place was imposed before authorities determined there was no more danger inside. No other people were hurt from the 12:20 p.m. shooting at the second floor of the hospital.

Authorities have yet to name the shooter and the fatality, both residents of Holiday City in Berkeley Township. The medical condition of the fatality and the motive for the shooting are being investigated, according to Toms River Police Chief Michael Mastronardy.

Eugenio Diaz, the husband of one patient in the hospital, claimed meeting the son of the shooter and the slain woman inside the hospital at the time of the shooting.

"My father shot my mother," Diaz quoted the son as telling him after the shooting, according to NJ.com.