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Guns and heartbreak [1]
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Date: 2022-12-27
For one family, Christmas will never be the same.
Guns and heartbreak often go hand in hand. This series adds a new dimensions, taking a look at the cost of shootings.
Two days before Christmas 2022, a man shot his wife and her toddler. Leaving his wife to die, he set out in the bitter cold with the toddler. When a sheriff’s deputy approached the man, he shot the deputy, who fired back. The man and his wife, with handgun wounds, are apparently still hospitalized. The toddler is in DCS care. The deputy was unharmed.
According to the Everytown Economic Cost Calculator, the unfortunate event cost the State of Indiana $867,538. That is the cost to survivors and families directly affected, their employers, government and broader community. The shootings result in $78,022 that will be paid by Indiana taxpayers to cover the government portion of medical and mental health care, first responders, ambulances, police response and investigations and criminal justice service.
This was just one incident. There were two shooters. Two people were shot. No one died. Yet, it will cost the State of Indiana $867,538, plus cost of hospital care in another state, and transportation of the Guilfoyles back to Indiana.
Everytown estimates that the Indiana Medical Care would be a $36,977 bill. But it will likely be $58,538, in Ohio, where the Guilfoyles are hospitalized.
The toddler is being cared for by the Indiana DCS, at a taxpayer cost of what was about $18.28/day, more than a decade ago, in 2011. [1] Hopefully, that has increased substantially, but more current figures were not immediately available.
In 2022, in Indiana, the average length of time a child spends about 9.6 months in foster care, if a family member is available to serve that role.[2]
These individuals were dealing with a lot. Now, a young mother is fighting for her life, from being shot in the head. A 31-year-old man is recovering from a gunshot and has been charged, while in hospital, with two counts of attempted murder and one count of neglect, related to taking the toddler out in the bitter cold, on foot. A little toddler’s future is uncertain.
It all comes down to two guns. One gun was in the hands of a distressed man. The other was in the hands of a sheriff’s deputy.
So what happened?
According to the AP, Gregory C. Guilfoyle, 31, of Brookville IN, allegedly shot and critically wounded his wife on Friday, Dec. 23, 2022, just two days before Christmas. Later, as the suspect walked outside in the bitter cold carrying a child, he shot at an officer. Guilfoyle, 31, was charged in Franklin County IN with two counts of attempted murder and one count of neglect of a dependent stemming from Friday’s incident, Indiana State Police said Monday, Dec. 27, 2022.
Police said a preliminary investigation indicates Guilfoyle allegedly shot his wife Hannah M. Guilfoyle, 23, around 12:30 a.m., at a residence on IN-1 and US-52 in Brookville Township. That was where deputies found her, during a wellness check, with what has since been reported as a serious brain injury and “appeared to have been laying outside on the ground in severe cold weather of a period of time.” She was taken to a Cincinnati hospital in critical condition.
Meanwhile, Gregory Guilfoyle had already left the residence earlier Friday, on foot, carrying Hannah Guilfoyle’s 23-month-old daughter, some 30 miles northwest of Cincinnati. Other sources said that, at the time, temperatures had dropped a record 39 degrees in a matter of hours, eventually reaching -11 degrees.
When Tri-State sheriff’s deputy Arin Bowers located Gregory Guilfoyle and the child, Guilfoyle pulled a handgun and fired it at Bowers, striking the deputy with at least one round. The deputy, who was wearing protective body armor, was not injured and nor was the child.
Bowers returned fire, wounding Guilfoyle at least once. EMS transported the 31-year-old to the University of Cincinnati Medical Center with serious injuries. Hannah Guilfoyle, Gregory C. Guilfoyle reportedly remain at the same hospital. The child was also treated and is in the custody of the Indiana Department of Child Services.
Reportedly court documents show Guilfoyle faces a previous, pending charge of criminal recklessness from October.
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