Elderly couple dead after shooting at Ontario hospital

COBOURG, Ont. A place intended for healing became a scene of violence and trauma when two rounds of gunfire erupted in a southern Ontario hospital, killing an elderly married couple and leaving other patients fearing for their lives.

Ontario’s Special Investigations Unit said details of the Friday night shooting at the Northumberland Hills Hospital in Cobourg, Ont., are still emerging, and two separate police investigations have been launched.

SIU spokesman Jason Gennaro said a 70-yearold man and 76-year-old woman, who were married to each other and lived within an hour of Cobourg, were both admitted to txhe hospital’s emergency room late Friday night with unknown ailments.

Around 11 p.m., Gennaro said police were called to the scene after receiving reports that shots had been fired in the triage room where both the man and the woman were lying side by side on gurneys.

Grace Andrews, 27, was sitting in an adjoining room receiving treatment for a herniated disc when the violence began.

She heard a loud bang and initially believed a nurse had knocked over a table, but soon heard people screaming for help and calling 911.

Moments later, as she observed police storming in, a volley of gunfire sent her companions and other patients scurrying for cover.

“We barricaded ourselves in the room,” she said. “We were basically just sitting in this little box waiting for someone to come in and shoot us.”