Talk of Divorce Preceded Shooting that Resulted in Apparent Man’s Suicide and Woman’s Injury

Maureen Lockwood had been shot in the head when she called 911 Sunday morning (June 2), telling the dispatcher that her husband, Ralph Lockwood, had shot her, then shot himself. It was the first case of what the Flagler County Sheriff’s Office would approach as a murder-suicide in Palm Coast since the shooting deaths of David and Terry Sharp on Barkwood Lane in March 2011.

A few details have emerged since through several sheriff’s reports in the death of Ralph Lockwood, 63, and the wounding of Maureen Lockwood, 55, who has been recovering from her injuries. The sheriff’s office has not yet reached a conclusive determination on the events of that morning.

When deputies responded to 254 Beechwood Lane, they had to force their way into the house. The front door had been locked. They called out in loud, clear voices, getting no replies. They saw Ralph behind the island in the kitchen, where one deputy positioned himself to secure him while others continued in and around the house, to clear it of any possible threat.

Ralph had an injury to the head. Maureen was conscious and aware: at one point she called out to the deputies from a back bedroom, who found her at the foot of the bed, her small dog as if keeping vigil on her.

“He shot me in the head,” she told deputies as they started tending to her. She told the deputies that she had told her husband she wanted a divorce. “He shot me in the kitchen,” she said. The deputy tending to her was not focused on those details, but on keeping her alert until the arrival of paramedics. Fire Flight, the emergency helicopter, had been launched, as would be a second emergency helicopter from Volusia. The deputy was not initially able to locate the bullet’s point of entry “due to the amount of blood and positioning.”

Paramedics from Stations 21, 23 and 24 arrived, and located “what looked like a small caliber entry wound on the left side” of Maureen’s head, just below her left ear.

A small, black semi-automatic handgun was located just below Ralph’s feet. He was still breathing, but a report described his breathing as “agonal.” There were blood stains on top of the kitchen’s island and and a bloody handprint on the door to the back patio. Deputies would later determine that Maureen had most likely been shot in the kitchen, then crawled to the bedroom to make the 911 call.