Murder Suicide

The RCMP are investigating after two people were shot to death Tuesday afternoon at the Penticton Regional Hospital.


British Columbia's Interior Health Authority said the deaths were the result of a murder-suicide.

A 77-year-old man walked into the health care facility and shot his 80-year-old wife with a handgun before turning the weapon on himself, CBC News has learned.

Interior Health Authority CEO Murray Ramsden said the man had visited his wife daily since she was admitted several weeks ago and was well known to hospital staff.
He described the man and his wife as a "very kind, gentle older couple that appeared to be very close."

The woman was due to be transferred to a long-term care facility soon, Ramsden added.
The couple's names have not been released.

RCMP Cpl. Rick Dellebuur said the incident took place shortly after 1 p.m. PT.
Ramsden said a nurse had just left their room and was in the hallway when two gunshots were heard.

It is the third instance of violent death at a B.C. hospital in under four years.
A B.C. coroner's inquest was held after three killings at Mission Memorial Hospital in 2003.
Forty-one-year-old Sherry Heron and her 68-year-old mother, Anna Adams, were killed by Heron's estranged husband, who later committed suicide.
The inquest ultimately dealt more with issues surrounding police handling of domestic violence cases than with hospital security.
In April of this year, a 78-year-old hospital volunteer was beaten to death at the Campbell River Hospital.
Police said that Phyllis Hards, who had volunteered at the hospital for 20 years, was kicked in the head.
Dale Olvai Huttunen, 26, was charged with second-degree murder in connection with her death.