Authorities Saturday were trying to sort out the motive of a former Army solider once deployed to Afghanistan who Friday killed three people at a veterans home in Napa County, Calif., where he once stayed.
The Napa County Sheriff-Coroner’s Office identified the shooter as Albert Wong, 36, of Sacramento, a former resident at the Pathway Home, a residential program within the Yountville Veterans Home. He was found dead next to the bodies of three employees Friday afternoon.
Authorities identified the victims as the home’s executive director, Christine Loeber, 48; therapist Jen Golick, 42; and Jennifer Gonzales, 29, a psychologist with the San Francisco Department of Veterans Affairs Healthcare System.
Golick’s father-in-law, Bob Golick, told the Associated Press that Wong has been expelled from the program.
At a news conference Saturday morning, officials said the victims of the shooting brought a “unique sense of purpose and humanity to their jobs.”
California state Sen. Bill Dodd told KGO-TV that Wong had post-traumatic stress disorder from his service in the Middle East.
After an hours-long standoff, law enforcement officers entered the room at the veterans home where the gunman had been holding the hostages shortly before 6 p.m. That is where they found the four bodies.
“This is a tragic piece of news, one that we were really hoping we wouldn’t have to come before the public to give,” said Chris Childs, assistant chief of the California Highway Patrol’s Golden Gate Division.
Childs said a rental car driven by Wong that was parked near the building drew a reaction from a bomb-sniffing dog. A SWAT team and an explosives unit cleared the car, and it was not believed to be a threat.
Cissy Sherr, who with her husband became Wong’s legal guardian after his father died when he was a child, told the Santa Rosa Press-Democrat that she was devastated by the violence.
“Like many of our young men (in the military), he did see some rough times,” Sherr told the paper. “He’s always been soft-spoken, honest and patriotic and loyal. It’s heartbreaking.”
The first Napa County sheriff’s deputy to arrive at the scene exchanged gunfire with the gunman, who allowed some of the employees to leave before holing up in a room with the three hostages. Childs said authorities credited the responding deputy for saving lives “by eliminating the ability of the suspect to go out and find other victims.”
The deputy was not injured.
Childs said authorities tried throughout the day to reach the gunman on his cellphone to no avail. Three hostage negotiators were at the scene, but the standoff dragged on throughout the day with no contact with the gunman or the hostages.
Yountville Mayor John Dunbar said the Pathway Home program “has been unique from the very beginning,” partly because of the way it allowed veterans to interact with the community. Parts of the program included activities such as fishing or bowling trips.
In some cases, those in the program needed to be reintroduced into daily life, Dunbar said — that included being in crowded rooms, or places with loud noises.
Some local businesses would offer the veterans anything they needed, he said, to “come and relax.”
“Sometimes that’s part of the programming, to just be human,” Dunbar said.
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