NEW ROCHELLE, N.Y. — A 77-year-old pharmacist who said he killed his ailing wife because he didn’t want to put her in a nursing home has been charged with murder.

New Rochelle police Commissioner Patrick Carroll says Paul Weinstein called 911 on Wednesday and said he’d killed his wife, Helena, with a gunshot to her head. The commissioner says Weinstein told police his wife was terminally ill and had been suffering for years.

When police arrived, Weinstein wouldn’t let them in and threatened to kill himself. But he eventually surrendered.

In City Court on Thursday, Weinstein was arraigned on a charge of second-degree murder. No plea was entered. A call to Legal Aid, which represented Weinstein, was not immediately returned.