HARTFORD, Conn. (AP) - A Connecticut man killed his estranged wife and wounded her mother Wednesday in a shooting that sparked a manhunt and lockdowns at area schools and hospitals, according to state police.
The slain woman, Lori Gellatly, 32, had obtained a restraining order against her husband and described him in court paperwork as violent and mentally ill.
“He acts out very violently and I am afraid for my kids and myself,” Gellatly wrote in an application for the order filed April 24.
Her husband, Scott Gellatly, 46, was charged with murder, attempted murder, motor vehicle theft, assault on an elderly person, reckless endangerment and two counts of risk of injury to a minor. He was under police guard at a hospital in Torrington and detained on $2 million bail, with arraignment scheduled for Thursday at Derby Superior Court, authorities said.
Lori Gellatly’s mother, Merry Jackson, 63, was reported in serious condition at Saint Mary’s Hospital in Waterbury, which was locked down temporarily as a precaution.
The shooting happened at a home near Swan Lake in Oxford at about 5:30 a.m. Wednesday. State police said Lori Gellatly called 911 to report that her estranged husband was trying to break into her home. Troopers found the two women suffering from gunshot wounds when they arrived. Lori Gellatly later died at a hospital.
The estranged couple’s twin toddlers also were in the home, but were unharmed and placed in the care of relatives.
Scott Gellatly fled in an SUV he stole from the home, drove about a mile and stole another vehicle, state police said. He was found about six hours after the shootings in Winsted, about 40 miles north of the crime scene, in a vehicle that had a hose running from the exhaust pipe into the passenger compartment, state police Lt. J. Paul Vance said.
The killing came a day before a court hearing on whether to extend the restraining order. Scott Gellatly was supposed to surrender all his firearms under the order issued April 25.
Lori Gellatly wrote in the application that her husband had grabbed her and yelled at her during an argument last month.
“I felt threatened and told him I didn’t feel safe and was going to leave with the twins,” she wrote. “He is bipolar. …. He did not take his meds with him.”
Vance said Scott Gellatly was initially arrested on a misdemeanor warrant that had been issued before the shooting. Details of the warrant weren’t immediately available.
Police had responded to the Gellatly home one or two times before, Vance said. He didn’t say why.
Posts on Scott Gellatly’s Facebook page indicate the couple had been having marital problems for months and that she had moved out of their home and taken their children with her. The restraining order gave temporary custody of the couple’s children to Lori Gellatly. Scott Gellatly also accused his wife of infidelity.
Lori Gellatly worked for the state Department of Energy and Environmental Protection in Hartford for the past six years as an environmental analyst for the agency’s Air Management Bureau, agency spokesman Dennis Schain said. Her job was focused on controlling sources of air pollution, he said.
“Just a sad and tragic day here, and our thoughts and prayers are with the family and everyone who worked with her,” Schain said.
Vance said state police notified all law enforcement in northwestern Connecticut and up and down the Eastern seaboard during the search for Scott Gellatly. Authorities initially believed that Lori Gellatly had been taken hostage by her husband and issued a public silver alert for her, but later canceled the alert after investigators determined no one was abducted.
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