An 88-year-old man was on suicide watch Monday after walked into a Nevada hospital room, pulled out his new gun and shot his wife in the chest, authorities said.
The man, William Dresser, was charged with attempted murder and elderly endangerment and was held on $225,000 bail after the shooting Sunday at Carson Tahoe Regional Medical Center in Carson City. His wife, whose name and age weren't disclosed, suffered life-threatening injuries, the Carson City Sheriff's Office said.
Sheriff Ken Furlong said Monday that the woman was alone in her room and that no other patients were ever in danger.
Dresser walked into the hospital shortly after 11 a.m. (2 p.m. ET) Sunday and went to the room of his wife, who was being treated for a previous injury, Furlong said, stressing that no foul play was suspected in her original injury. He fired one shot from a small-caliber semi-automatic handgun he'd recently bought, striking her in the chest, and was quickly detained by hospital staff and corrections officers on duty in the ward, Furlong said.
Dresser, who has no known criminal history in the Carson City area, was placed under suicide watch for reasons authorities wouldn't disclose.
The woman was transported to Renown Medical Center in Reno, the region's primary trauma center. That's the same campus where a gunman killed a doctor and shot another in an adjacent urology clinic before committing suicide.