Four dead in US hostage drama
YOUNTVILLE, CALIFORNIA: A former US serviceman opened fire at a California veterans home where he had undergone treatment for post-traumatic stress disorder, taking three employees hostage in an all-day standoff that ended when police found him and his female captives dead.
Despite repeated efforts by police negotiators to communicate with the suspect throughout the day, authorities said they had failed to make contact with the gunman after he exchanged gunfire with a sheriff’s deputy at the outset of the confrontation.
Authorities identified the gunman as Albert Wong, 36, a former patient of Pathway Home, a programme housed at the veterans complex for former service members suffering PTSD after deployments in Iraq and Afghanistan.
The San Francisco Chronicle, citing unidentified sources, said Wong, who lived in Sacramento, had been asked to leave the programme two weeks ago.
The three hostages all worked for the programme. They were later identified as Pathway Home executive director Christine Loeber, 48, the programme’s clinical director, therapist Jen Golick, 42, and Jennifer Gonzales, 29, a psychologist with the San Francisco Department of Veterans Affairs Healthcare System.
“These brave women were accomplished professionals, dedicated to their careers of serving our nation’s veterans, working closely with those of the greatest need of attention,” Pathway Home said in a statement.
The siege came less than a month after a former student with an assault-style rifle killed 17 people at a Florida high school.
That massacre touched off a student-led drive for new restrictions on gun sales to curb mass shootings that have occurred with frightening frequency in the United States over the past few years.
The Veterans Home of California, a residence for about 1,000 aging and disabled US military veterans, is the largest facility of its kind in the United States. The Pathway Home is housed in a separate building on the campus.