3 KILLED IN U.S. SIEGE
Shooter found dead at veteran centre where he received treatment for PTSD
AFORMER United States 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 stand-off that ended when police found him and his female captives dead.
“This is a tragic piece of news, one that we were really hoping we wouldn’t have to come before the public to give,” California Highway Patrol spokesman Chris Childs said outside the facility here, a picturesque town located in the heart of Napa Valley’s wine country, 100km north of San Francisco.
Despite repeated efforts by police negotiators to communicate with the suspect, 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.
“We credit him (the deputy) with saving the lives of others in the area by eliminating the ability of the suspect to go out and find other victims,” Childs said.
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 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 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.
The Veterans Home of California, a residence for about 1,000 ageing and disabled US military veterans, is the largest facility of its kind in the US.
The entire complex, its staff and residents were placed under a security lockdown during the siege, which began at 10.30am and ended eight hours later.
The incident began when the gunman calmly walked into the Pathway Home building carrying a rifle during a going-away party for one of the employees, according to Larry Kamer, the husband of one of the programme’s administrators, Devereaux Smith.
Kamer, who volunteers at the home, said his wife told him by telephone during the siege that the gunman had allowed her and three other women to leave the room where the party was taking place, while three female employees remained as hostages.
The Napa County sheriff’s deputy who confronted the gunman had arrived within four minutes of the first reports of gunfire, Sheriff John Robertson said.
Rod Allen, a resident of the home, said the gunman fired about 30 shots.