A former soldier and former patient of a veterans home in California took three employees hostage on Friday in a seven-hour standoff before authorities found him and three mental health professionals dead.
Gunman, 3 Hostages Dead At Veterans Home North Of San Francisco
Authorities say 36-year-old Albert Wong, armed with a rifle, burst into a morning gathering at the Veterans Home of California-Yountville, a treatment facility for elderly or disabled veterans. He took five hostages after exchanging gunfire with a Napa County sheriff's deputy. He later released two hostages.
When police stormed the facility hours later, they found Wong dead, along with three of home's employees, 42-year-old Clinical Director Jennifer Golick, 48-year-old Executive Director Christine Loeber, and 29-year-old Clinical Psychologist Jennifer Gonzalez -- all fatally shot.
The Pathway Home, which leases space on the campus of the state-run Veterans Home, is a nonprofit treatment program that helps post-9/11 military veterans reintegrate into civilian life, including by counseling clients with post-traumatic stress disorder.
Wong was reportedly a veteran and former patient Pathway who suffered from bipolar disorder, various physical ailments and anger issues. Wong's brother, Tyrone Lampkin, told CNN that he had been kicked out of Pathway for having knives, making threats and "not getting along with people." According to CNN, he had threatened one of the women, though details about the threat weren't immediately available.
But Lampkin claims that Wong, who was armed Friday with a rifle and a shotgun, never intended to kill anyone.
"Whatever happened out there, he didn't say he was going to shoot anybody," Lampkin told the Santa Rosa Press Democrat. "He said he wanted to get back at them, talk to them, yell at them, not to kill them. He didn't mention that."
More here: Gunman at California veterans' home 'wanted to get back at them' but 'not kill'