The tragedy of Yountville
The tragedy at Yountville’s Pathway Home treatment facility, where a gunman killed three caregivers and himself last Friday, may be just the latest in a string of horrific gun massacres across the country — but its repercussions will be with the region for a long time to come.
Most immediate is the senseless loss of so many bright lives. The three women who died had dedicated their lives to helping veterans who struggled with mental health challenges.
Friends, family and community members have all described Pathway Home’s executive director, Christine Loeber, 48, clinical director Jennifer Golick, 42, and Jennifer Gonzales, 32, a clinical psychologist with the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs, as smart, warm, loving souls who were passionate about their work healing veterans.
All three of them will be dearly missed. Countless Bay Area families were helped by the work of these women.
Pathway Home’s directors are currently engaged in an exhaustive review of the facility’s security protocols. Law enforcement is digging into the history of the killer, a 36-year-old Army veteran named Albert Wong.
So far what we know is that Wong had been undergoing treatment for posttraumatic stress disorder at Pathway Home for nearly a year before being asked to leave, allegedly for exhibiting violence.
The tragedy certainly speaks to the incredible challenges of providing mental health services to those who need it most.
The community response to this unbearable tragedy has been an outpouring of support for both the victims’ families and the veterans’ complex where this tragedy took place.
That’s as it should be. This was a terrifying mass shooting, but military veterans aren’t more prone to violence than nonveterans, according to U.S. Bureau of Justice Statistics. Pathway’s mission is to prevent the kind of violence that tragically struck its campus. Just as the violent act of one individual can’t diminish the lives or legacies of his victims, nor can it reduce the importance of Pathway’s mission or its role in this community.