Westchester Medical Center shooting was the 1st in its 5-decade history
Posted: Updated:Turn to Tara is investigating how a gunman got inside the Westchester Medical Center Wednesday morning and killed his wife and himself when guns are prohibited inside the facility.
MORE: Westchester Medical Center banned guns but had no metal detectors
The hospital sees more than 3 million patients a year and employs about 7,000 health care workers. Never in its roughly 50-year history had there been a shooting.
Authorities say Richard DeLucia, 71, shot and killed his wife Ann in her fourth-floor hospital bed. The fourth floor houses general medicine and patients who have to remain hospitalized for longer periods.
MORE: Shooting sets off panic, raises security concerns at WMC
It's unclear whether Ann DeLucia was terminally ill, but a note found at the DeLucias' Yorktown home indicated that she had ongoing medical problems and that her husband wanted to end her suffering, according to a county spokesperson.
In his attempt to do so, he smuggled a .38-caliber revolver into the hospital.
Federal guidelines from both the Department of Homeland Security and Department of Health state hospitals should take a proactive approach toward shooting incidents. That approach includes ongoing training, established safe rooms and lockdown procedures.
MORE: Officials say Westchester Medical Center gunman was victim's husband
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The medical center declined to release its full safety plan, but officials say the staff members are trained monthly and that armed guards work around the clock. There are security details at all of the hospital's entrances, officials say.
But Turn to Tara has uncovered data that shows the state criticized WMC for its handling of another security concern last fall -- when a young patient threatened to set the building on fire.
Hospital officials say in this week's incident, proper protocol was followed.
There have been only three other shootings at hospitals in New York state in the past decade.
While hospital shootings are rare, an average of 50 women a month are shot to death by their partners in the United States.
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