Army vet ousted from facility killed trio, Calif. officials say
YOUNTVILLE, Calif. — Three women who devoted their lives to helping traumatized veterans were killed by a patient who had been recently kicked out of their treatment program, authorities said.
A daylong siege at The Pathway Home ended Friday night with the discovery of four bodies, including the gunman. He was identified as Albert Wong, 36, a former Army rifleman who served a year in Afghanistan in 2011-2012 and was highly decorated.
Investigators were still trying to determine why Wong killed two executives and a psychologist at The Pathway Home, a nonprofit post-traumatic stress disorder program at the Veterans Home of California Yount villein the Na pa Valley wine country region.
Jennifer Golick, 42, Jennifer Gonzales, 29, and Christine Loeber, 48, were killed. Loeber was the executive director of the nonprofit. Golick was a clinical director and Gonzales, who was seven months pregnant, a clinical psychologist with the San Francisco Department of Veterans Affairs Healthcare System.
Gov. Jerry Brown ordered flags flown at halfstaff at the state Capitol.
Yountville Mayor John Dunbar said the employees will be remembered as beautiful people and called the gunman “one of our heroes who clearly had demons.”
Dunbar also serves on the board of directors for the Pathway Home, a treatment program for veterans from the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq.
Dunbar said the Pathway Home will continue to operate.