A Maryland continuing care retirement community put its emergency preparedness plan into action Friday afternoon when a resident reportedly fatally shot his wife and then killed himself in a community parking lot.

Baltimore County Police reported responding to a call of a shooting at Charlestown, an Erickson Living community in Catonsville, MD, just before 2 p.m. on Friday. When they arrived, they found the bodies of Clifford Wilson Terry, 78, and Mary Kathleen Black Terry, 79.

Clifford Terry, the department said, had “wheeled his recently injured wife … out to their car in a wheelchair. Once at the car, he shot his wife once in the upper body, killing her, then turned the gun on himself, also shooting himself once in the upper body.”

Authorities recovered a revolver at the scene. “Additional investigation will be conducted on the firearm … but police confirmed that the gun was not reported stolen,” the department said.

Charlestown has not experienced a similar incident since it opened in 1983, Dan Dunne, director of external communications for Erickson Living, told McKnight’s Senior Living Monday afternoon. The community was ready, however, he said.

“The community has had extensive training in the area of emergency preparedness and critical incident responses,” Dunne said. “The response to this domestic-related murder-suicide was immediate, not only by campus leadership; within two minutes, the Baltimore County Police were on-site, too.”

The Terrys lived in the independent living section of the complex, where firearms and ammunition are permitted in apartments but not at resident functions or in common areas such as dining rooms, cafes and resident computer rooms, he said.

“The resident is fully and solely responsible for compliance with all federal, state and local laws for possessing, maintaining and carrying firearms” and also must adhere to community guidelines, Dunne said. Firearms are not allowed in the continuing care buildings of the community, he added.

Community policies are outlined in the resident handbook, Dunne said.

Since Friday, he added, Charlestown leaders have answered residents’ questions about the incident, the community’s response and its policies related to firearms. “Immediately upon the incident happening, we notified the residents, and then there have been communications with the residents on the in-house television,” Dunne said.

Communication with staff members has taken place as well, he added, and a staff meeting is scheduled for Tuesday.

“One of our goals from the very beginning — and this is inherent in our emergency preparedness — is to make sure we’re not only being transparent in our communications but that we’re also being very timely,” Dunne said. “That’s something that we’ve really been devoting a lot of resources to since last Friday.”

See also: LeadingAge’s Q&A about weapons policies at senior living communities (PDF)