MARION COUNTY, Fla. -- A Marion County man who opened fire on his wife bought the shotgun used in the crime just hours earlier at a nearby Wal-Mart. He didn't have to wait to get the gun. He passed a mandatory background check in the store and walked right out with it.

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The man then went back into the store and bought some shotgun shells. Detectives said he then went home and murdered his wife.

Cheryl Schleher heard a knock at the door Monday night around 11 o'clock. It was her neighbor, Johnny High.

"My husband went out there and he asked my husband if he had a shotgun," she said.

High left Schleher's home empty-handed. Tuesday morning, deputies said he came to the Wal-Mart on State Road 200. He bought a shotgun, some shells and took them home, where he opened fire on his wife, Kimberly.

"We have witnesses that actually watched her run from the house and watched him chasing after her and he shot her in the yard [in the back]," said Sgt. Brian Spivey, Marion County Sheriff's Office.

Kimberly High died in her backyard. Deputies said her husband then went inside their trailer home and shot himself in the chest. The first officers on the scene said High was still conscious when they got there and he confessed.

Schleher said the couple was getting a divorce. She said Johnny looked liked he had been crying the night he came to her house. She didn't know what he was about to do. Just the same, she wishes she had warned Kimberly.

"When my husband told, told me, I said, 'We need to tell Kimmy, though. I don't know. She was a good friend," she said.

The sheriff's office said Johnny High is in critical condition at Orlando Regional Medical Center. The Highs have two children, four and seven years old. They were not home when their mother was killed. They are now with their grandparents.

In Florida, there is a three-day waiting period for handguns, but there is no waiting period for long guns. In addition, background checks are only required at federally-licensed gun stores. People buying firearms at gun shows and person to person are not subject to background checks.