Associated Press
January 20, 2014
RENO, NEV. – Jailers were keeping an 88-year-old man on a suicide watch after he was arrested for allegedly opening fire at a Carson City hospital and critically wounding his wife, authorities said.
Photo courtesy sundayworld.com
William Dresser was arrested Sunday after firing one shot with small-caliber semi-automatic handgun that struck his wife in the chest at Carson Tahoe Regional Medical Center, Carson City Sheriff Ken Furlong said. No other injuries were reported. The woman was a patient in a third-floor room when she was shot around 11:30 a.m.
The woman’s injuries are considered life-threatening, and she was transferred to Renown Regional Medical Center in Reno, Furlong said. Her name and age were not immediately released.
Dresser was booked into the Carson City Jail on suspicion of attempted murder and was on suicide watch, the sheriff said. His bail was set at $225,000, he said.
Dresser, who recently bought the gun, came to his wife’s room in the rehabilitation ward, where she was alone, and shot her in the chest, Furlong said. No details of why she was admitted to the hospital were released, but officials don’t suspect foul play.
Hospital security personnel and state Department of Corrections officials at the scene quickly detained the man until sheriff’s deputies arrived.