George Bereska Jr. was arrested on August 7 and charged with first-degree murder with a firearm for shooting his husband, 66-year-old Benjamin Renwick, in their Florida home on August 6.

The shooting occurred around 9:41 p.m. when Boynton Beach police received a call from a number – later identified as Renwick’s – and heard “groaning and the sound of a single gunshot, followed by silence,” according to a police report obtained by NBC affiliate WPTV of West Palm Beach.

Two minutes later, police received a call from Bereska, who said he and his husband had had a “very bad argument.” He told the police department that he had shot his husband in the chest. The department asked him to administer first aid, to which Bereska replied, “He’s dead.”

When officers arrived at the couple’s home, Renwick was lying naked on the kitchen floor, covered in blood and suffering from multiple gunshot wounds. Police found three shell casings in the home – one in the living room and two in the kitchen – and a Taurus firearm on the dining room table.

In their police report, investigators wrote that no furniture had been moved, no items were in disarray and there were no signs of a physical altercation.

A police report states that Bereska was sitting on a sofa in a room. Police took him into custody for questioning.

Bereska said he had been “dazed” since 6 p.m. and could not remember anything that had happened. He claimed he was drunk and did not know why he was at the police station.

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At another point in the interrogation, Bereska reportedly asked how much his bail would be. He asked to use the restroom, and when he stood up, police found that he showed no signs of being unsteady on his feet or having trouble following instructions. He also had no injuries on his body and no blood stains on his clothes.

Bereska appeared in court on the morning of August 7 and was denied bail. He is currently being held in the Palm Beach County Jail.

Bereska has a previous criminal record in Maryland. He was charged in Calvert County with second-degree sexual assault in connection with a 12-year-old boy in June and July 1995. He pleaded guilty to a downgrade to third-degree sexual assault, WPTV reports.

Friends of the couple expressed their disbelief at the shooting.

“First of all, it’s just shocking that someone would do something like this, but for it to happen so close to us is crazy,” Robin Tamburr, who was visiting her father who lives next door to the couple’s home, told WPBF.

Tamburr noted that the couple were quiet and largely kept to themselves, but said they “seemed like a completely normal couple.”

“I’m telling you, we’re all really shocked and can hardly believe it,” Julie Aldrich, a friend of Renwick and Bereska, told CBS affiliate WPEC in West Palm Beach.

John Harvey, a member of the American Legion, a veterans group with a chapter in Boynton Beach where Renwick was an active member, told WPEC, “There are going to be a lot of devastated people because Ben was very active in veterans’ post 164, and this is going to tear people apart.”

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