ORANGE PARK, Fla. -- The family of Wednesday's nursing home shooting victims is speaking out.
Through tears, sister-in-law Martha Stanton speaks out about her 75-year-old brother-in-law, James Stanton.
The Clay County Sheriff's Office says he walked into an Orange Park nursing home Wednesday and shot his wife, Patricia Stanton, then turned the gun on himself. James was killed, but Patricia survived.
But what sounds like a plot for a horrible murder suicide, Stanton says is actually a tragic end to a love story.
"He wanted them both to go together," said Martha.
Stanton tells Action News, in the past week, a couple who spent every waking moment together was forced to live apart because they were both so ill.
She says James was plagued with an aneurysm near his heart, Patricia was in the final stages of cancer.
"He knew there was no hope for either of them," she said. She told Action News the couple just wanted to be put out of their misery.
"I feel like he planned it because he went to the cemetery to make preparations for them to be buried," said Martha.
Now the couple's family mourns and hopes to clear James Stanton's name.
"I hate to think somebody thinks he was a monster and did all that because I know that's not so anybody that knew him knows that's not so," she said.
Patricia Stanton remains in critical condition at Orange Park Medical Center.
