Last Updated: 5:29 p.m.
Last week (on Dec. 8) David Gilmore was arrested on a charge of aggravated assault after his neighbor accused Gilmore of pointing a long gun in the direction of her property and at a minor girl on the property. A spent shell was also recovered on Gilmore’s property when he was arrested. The neighbor runs Second Chance Rescue., the animal refuge, and there’d been an ongoing conflict with Gilmore over time.
Gilmore quickly posted bail on $5,000 bond and was released, with his felony arraignment set for Feb. 1 before a circuit judge.
Three days after the arrest, however–the night of Friday, Dec. 11–Gilmore apparently tried to shoot himself with a .22-caliber gun in his yard.
Flagler County Sheriff’s deputies were called to his property at 152 Bimini Lane in Bunnell just after 10 p.m. “I arrived on scene and saw what appeared to be a man laying down in the yard on the left side of the home,” a deputy wrote in an incident report. He was laying on his right side with his head facing the road. I approached the man from the street and took cover behind a boat in the yard and observed the man for a minute and did not see any movement. There was visible blood soaked at the top of his shirt. I approached the man and called out to him with no movement or reply. I then noticed a gun in his right hand and saw the man move. I directed the man to move the weapon from his hand and he did.”
The deputy secured the Lorcin handgun and observed a gunshot wound to Gilmore’s head. “I spoke with David and advised him that I was there to help him. David told me that he did not want my help and he wanted to die,” the deputy reported. Rescue 71 arrived at the scene and provided first aid, and Gilmore was later air-lifted to Halifax hospital in Daytona Beach. No shell casing was recovered at the scene.
Gilmore’s 74-year-old wife was at the house at the time of the incident and required some attention from paramedics as she complained of chest pains, but declined further medical attention. According to a supplemental deputy’s report, she said she heard four gunshots. She had been in the house at the time, she said, and had heard Gilmore walk out of the front door.
She told deputies her husband suffers from Huntington’s disease, that he had recently found out he had cancer, and had been overwhelmed by his arrest days earlier. He’d been making statements all day about “ending it all,” according to the incident report.
She said she believed her husband “surrendered all of his firearms,” and could not explain where he had hid the gun he used to shoot himself, a gun she said she recognized.
“It appears David attempted to shoot himself a second time but the round did not fire,” the deputy’s supplemental report states.
Bc says
Wow another fine Flagler resident of this county it seems that we live in a county of mental and drug addicted people with no help for them and the judges keep letting them go instead of remanding them to counseling or rehab
Anonymous says
The police should do a sweep of the house to confiscate any and all firearms. If the wife does not agree with this plan, you know she is hiding something, for some reason–perhaps out of fear that the husband will harm her and/or harm himself. I hope this man is being baker-acted, at the very least. He is an obviosu danger to himself and others.
Anonymous says
Huntington’s Disease is a progressive neurological disorder that causes both cognitive decline and adverse psychiatric symptoms. How is it that this man can still legally possess firearms while suffering from a disease that severely impairs judgement and causes severe mood swings and/or psychosis?
Anonymous says
It’s one thing to say something about drug addicts but really to clearly make fun of a mentally ill person is just wrong. … until you know what it’s like to have that kind of illness don’t go casting stones at people who do. … what gives you the right to judge another? ? Really! !!!
Sandra Reynolds says
Bc, your comment is uncalled for. Did you not read the article. I think you owe him an apology.
Stepsherpa says
Huntington’s Disease is cutting through David Gilmores family like the plague. Children are suffering the effects, brothers and sisters, nephews and nieces, most all are in the grips of the catastrophic upheaval surrounding the Huntington’s. His decisions, his actions, all but had him boxed in. In his mind there were no more options but make it stop, shut it all down. Was this thinking a result of the disease? Who can say for sure, who really knows the mind of a man who has lost all hope.
Personally, I feel for the guy. Cancer had returned. Huntington’s a daily struggle. This is no longer a working class New Englander retiring in the Florida sunshine to enjoy fishing and boating. No, life had forced him into the shadows of despair. This is how 74 years of life ends for David Gilmore. A self inflicted bullet to the brain.
In his position would I fall victim to my own mind, the insanity, the hopelessness real or imagined? Would death be a means of survival? I hope not. I think it’s safe to say that we all hope not.
Sherry says
I agree with those who have compassion for this entire family. It’s despicable and all too common that some of our community members get out their “label makers” and rush to negative judgement without completely reading the entire story. . . or disregarding facts due to their own prejudices.
I sincerely wish that David is able to receive some much needed counseling. . . and that all guns are removed from the premises.