‘One of our heroes who clearly had demons’: Gunman who killed veterans’ workers served in Afghanistan – By Tatiana Sanchez (mercurynews.com) / March 10 2018
YOUNTVILLE — He had earned a rifle marksman badge, one of several commendations, during his tour of duty in Afghanistan. Back on U.S. soil, however, the Army veteran lived a tortured life, where sleep and shaking the things he saw in combat were hard to come by, the woman who raised him said Saturday.
Albert Cheung Wong, 36, described by the mayor of this town as “one of our heroes who clearly had demons,” on Friday burst into a building at the Yountville Veterans Home in Napa County, taking hostages and later shooting dead three veterans’ workers who once treated him for post-traumatic stress disorder before taking his own life.
As the largest veterans home in the country mourned the deaths of Christine Loeber, Jennifer Golick, and Jennifer Gonzales, a clearer timeline of the gunman’s military service and final years emerged.
Wong was reportedly kicked out of the facility’s Pathway Home program — where he had been living for about a year — by Golick, a clinical director, just a few days before the shooting, according to the Associated Press.
Cecilia “Cissy” Sherr, a family friend who became Wong’s guardian after he lost his father at age 8, said Wong was “hyper-alert” and often triggered by loud noises, but that he never showed signs of violence and didn’t have a criminal history.
“I recognize everyone has two sides to them, everyone has a limit,” she said. “I would say to him, ‘you need to pay attention to the stress and the trauma.’”
Sherr, a Millbrae resident, said she and her husband Matthew raised Wong as their own until he was a teenager, when the couple realized they could no longer devote enough time to raising him. He was taken into the foster care system and placed with a new family. Wong joined the Army as a reservist after high school, eventually serving as an infantryman with one tour in Afghanistan from 2011-2012.
Sherr said his experiences sounded a lot “like the movies you see.” “Everyday to be constantly on alert, to be hyper-aware if a bomb is going to go off under your feet. You didn’t know who to trust.”
Sherr said the two kept in touch after Wong came home. But there were notable differences in the boy she had raised.
“Sometimes he would sit on the sofa in a trance. He would sit there and not realize he was totally safe there,” she said.
Still, it remains unclear what in particular set Wong off Friday, and officials at a news conference Saturday declined to give any details about the shooter that may have pointed to a motive.
“I and the members of the Pathway Home family lost three beautiful people yesterday,” said Yountville Mayor John Dunbar. “We also lost one of our heroes who clearly had demons that resulted in the terrible tragedy that we all experienced here.”
An Army spokeswoman confirmed Wong’s tour in Afghanistan and said he was the recipient of several awards, including two medals for his service overseas and earned a badge for being an expert marksman with a rifle.
“We are deeply saddened by the tragic situation in Yountville and mourn the loss of three incredible women who cared for our Veterans,” President Donald Trump tweeted early Saturday.
We are deeply saddened by the tragic situation in Yountville and mourn the loss of three incredible women who cared for our Veterans.
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) March 10, 2018
Up until about a year ago, Wong lived in an olive-green house on Darling Street in Napa with his foster grandmother, according to Sherr. His next-door neighbor, Nathan Wilkens, said Wong stayed there for about two years. He kept to himself and was often seen smoking cigarettes in the front yard, Wilkens said Saturday.
When his foster grandmother died last year, Wong moved into Pathway. He seemed optimistic about the fresh start, according to Sherr.
Three candles were placed at the entrance sign to the Veterans Home of California on Saturday, a day after the shooting. The U.S., California, and Prisoner of War flags flew at half-staff.
This Sept. 2012 photo provided by Tom Turner shows Christine Loeber, a victim of the veterans home shooting on Friday, March 9, 2018 in Yountville, Calif, Loeber was executive director of the Pathway Home, a treatment program for veterans from the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. (Tom Turner via AP)
The candles were for Loeber, 48; Golick, 42; and Gonzales, 32. Loeber was the executive director of The Pathway Home, a nonprofit that reintegrates post 9/11 veterans with civilian life. Gonzales was a clinical psychologist with the San Francisco Department of Veterans Affairs Healthcare System.
“Each of them brought energy, vitality and personality to their jobs,” said Dunbar, qualities he added that were particularly critical in working with veterans suffering from PTSD and traumatic brain injuries.
Bob Golick said in a Friday afternoon interview with The Associated Press that his daughter-in-law, Jennifer Golick, had kicked Wong out of the program a few days ago. She called her husband Marc Golick around 10:30 a.m. Friday to say she had been taken hostage in the building where she worked.
William Marigny, national area supervisor in Oakland for Disabled American Veterans, said his organization has had to bar veterans from services for threatening employees with violence, which violates an agreement they sign.
“The sad part of that is PTSD is what is causing that,” Marigny said. “It’s a double-edged sword.”
Golick joined Pathways in September, according to her Facebook page. She graduated from UC Davis with a bachelor’s degree in psychology in 1998 and received a masters degree in counseling psychology at Sonoma State in 2000. She loved the San Francisco Giants.
Family gathered at Golick’s St. Helena home declined to speak with reporters Saturday.
After receiving her doctoral degree, Gonzales, a newlywed who was seven months pregnant, worked for a private counseling service provider offering individual and family counseling to deputies with the Santa Clara County Sheriff’s Department, according to Sgt. Richard Glennon.
“She was not an employee of the Sheriff’s office but worked with many of our staff members,” Glennon said in a statement. “The Santa Clara County Sheriff’s Office sends our deepest condolences and prayers to the families and friends of all the victims of this terrible tragedy in Yountville. For any of our deputies and their family members who had the pleasure of working with Dr. Jennifer Gonzales it is especially personal and heartbreaking.”
Loeber was a social worker and executive director at Pathway since September 2016. She’s seen in a photo she posted on her Facebook page, smiling with a group holding a large-sized check from the Rotary Club of Napa to Pathway Home.
Larry Kamer, whose wife works at Pathways and came face-to-face with the gunman before escaping, said the six veterans currently housed by the program have been placed in temporary housing because the building is still considered a crime scene.
Every year, Wong would visit the Sherrs on his birthday. Cissy would make lumpia, his favorite, and her mother would make her famous chili. But on his last birthday in August, Wong didn’t show.
“He didn’t come by last year,” she said. “It seemed like something was missing.”
PB/TK – PTSD is something that should not be joked about, however, it is part of the “mental instability” that has been talked about over the past few weeks. So do we ban gun ownership from those in our military that fought in Afghanistan & Iraq until medically cleared?
