An elderly man fatally shot his 81-year-old wife at a nursing home in central Connecticut before turning the gun on himself, officials from the facility said Friday.
The incident unfolded around 11 a.m. at the Apple Rehab in Cromwell, just south of Hartford.
According to Michael Landi, the company’s VP of operations, 82-year-old Dennis Brandt, who didn’t live at the facility, appeared to be visiting as usual when he walked in the front door, checked in at the desk and went into the building to see his wife, Barbara.
When employees heard gunshots, they rushed to the room and called 911, Landi said. No one witnessed the shooting.
“The staff are very shaken up. We reached out to all of them,” he added. “There’s a lot of emotion. There’s a lot of understanding that there’s shock and trauma.”
The tragic incident was confirmed by Cromwell Police Chief Frederick Sifodaskalakis, who said in a news release Friday afternoon that authorities were called to 156 Berlin Rd. “for a report of an active shooter.”
When first-responding officers arrived at the scene, they found the two individuals “deceased from gunshot wounds.” The victims were later identified as the Brandt couple.
The incident was believed to be contained and there were no additional threats to the public, Sifodaskalakis said.
According to Landi, the woman had lived at the facility since 2021. She did not have a roommate and was alone in the room at the time of the shooting.
A motive for the apparent murder-suicide was not immediately clear.
With News Wire Service
