The Pathway Home veterans program in Yountville, Calif., has suspended operations indefinitely following a shooting last Friday where a gunman took three employees hostage and killed them, The Press Democrat reports.
Albert Wong, a former Army rifleman who served a year in Afghanistan in 2011-2012 and returned highly decorated, was found dead at the scene. He had been treated for post-traumatic stress disorder at the center but recently had been asked to leave. Authorities said Wong, 36, went to the campus on Friday morning, slipped into a going away party for some employees and started taking hostages.
The women he killed served as the core clinical team for the home: Executive Director Christine Loeber, 48; Clinical Director Jennifer Golick, 42; and Jennifer Gonzales, 29, a clinical psychologist with the San Francisco Department of Veterans Affairs Healthcare System.
The Yountville campus, the largest veterans home in the nation, cares for about 1,000 elderly and disabled vets. The Pathway Home program opened in 2008, and was known for its effective therapy for PTSD and other post-deployment mental health programs.
“Veterans who have been in the program’s care will be supported by mental health and other services in cooperation with the federal Veterans Administration and local Napa County and nonprofit providers,” the Pathway Home’s board of directors said on Wednesday in a statement.
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