Doctors: Alleged Ohio mercy killer asked "please tell me she's dead"

(CBS/AP) AKRON, Ohio - The man charged in the suspected mercy killing of his wife at an Ohio hospital asked the doctor who confronted him, "Please tell me she's dead," according to the doctor's account of what happened.

In his first interview about the shooting at Akron General Medical Center, Dr. Michael Passero said Monday that he repeatedly asked 66-year-old John Wise to give up his weapon after the shooting in an intensive-care unit.

The discussion was interrupted when the victim, 65-year-old Barbara Wise, gasped for air. The doctor says John Wise then said: "Oh, God, she's still alive. How can she still be alive?"

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Witnesses say Wise entered the hospital on Saturday with a concealed handgun. He made it to his wife's room, where he fired at least one round hitting her in the head.

During a 911 call obtained by CBS affiliate WOIO in Akron, Ohio, a nurse claims the medical staff thought the popping sound was an oxygen tank at first but when they saw Wise sitting in the room with a gun they realized what the it was.

He was charged with aggravated murder in the Aug. 4 shooting. His wife died one day later. A medical examiner determined that the woman's death was from the gunshot wound in the head, ruling it a homicide.

Terry Henderson, who worked at a northeast Ohio steel plant with Wise for three decades, said that Wise told him that his wife had had three aneurysms and was left unable to speak, and Wise didn't want her to suffer. He added that Wise told him he never wanted to be disabled in a nursing home and said his wife felt the same way.

"John Wise is no criminal. He did what he did out of love," Henderson said to the Associated Press.