Sunday Read: Albert Wong, the Veterans Home gunman, knew he needed help

The Sherr family released this photo to media showing them with Albert Wong, left.

IT'S ALMOST a cliche: the man who apparently fatally shot three mental health professionals in Yountville, California, was described as a quiet man who never got angry.
Behind the quiet facade was a young boy who lost his parents at a young age and ended up in the foster system, and a former solder who sought help to fight his inner demons.

Albert Wong and his three hostages were found dead Friday evening after a seven-hour police siege at the Veterans Home of California.

We may never find out why he walked into a going-away party at the Veterans Home campus geared up as if he was going to battle, carrying a rifle and in a calm demeanor,  He singled out the three women as hostages and let the other people at the event leave the room.

After failing to contact him all day, the police finally entered the building where he had holed up and police found the bodies of the hostages and Wong in an apparent murder-suicide.

RELATED: Gunman, hostages found dead

Wong had served in the infantry of the U.S. Army and was deployed to Afghanistan from April 2011 to March 2012, according to information provided by the Army. He was honorably discharged in 2013.

Albert Wong

Army friends of the gunman told the Sacramento Bee paint a picture of the shooter as a veteran struggling to reintegrate into civilian life.

“It’s very shocking. I’ve never seen him yell or be angry,” said Ricardo Saenz, who has been friends with Wong since they went through basic training together. “It’s really saddening what happened to him and the people he hurt.”

Saenz, who lives in Texas with his wife, offered to take Wong in but Wong declined. "He had nobody to turn to. He was ashamed to ask for help. He didn’t know his family," said Saenz.

He told the Bee that Wong had trouble getting reimbursed through the GI bill program for classes he took. Saenz said Wong told him he suffered post traumatic stress disorder and was homeless after being put out of the VA program.

“He was trying to put his feet on the ground and it was hard for him,” Saenz said. “I'm disappointed he didn’t ask for help. None of this should have happened. He should have taken help.”

Wong's former guardians Cissy and Matthew Sherr, of Milbrae, California said they knew 36-year-old Albert Wong for 30 years.

They took the young boy in when Wong's father died and his mother, because of health problems, could not care for him. He stayed with them until he was a teenager. 

"We were a young couple and had a nice home [and took him in]," Matthew Sherr told KCRA-tV. 

“I’m shocked, saddened,” Matthew Sherr said. “I feel so bad.”

"His relatives lived in Southern California. Nobody really stepped forward to take him," Cissy Sherr told ABC-TV. "So, we took him. He was eight by then."

Wong entered the foster system because both of the Sherrs had full-time jobs and were not able to care for him. Though he entered the foster system, Wong stayed in contac with the Sherrs. 

After Wong returned from his deployment in Afghanistan, he moved back in with the Sherrs. Cissy Sherr said Wong knew he needed help, and he sought it.

Another of Wong's Army buddies, Jeffrey Watts, said he kept contact with Wong even though Watts lived in Georgia. Watts told the Bee that Wong had been “put out on the street without a treatment plan” after multiple “run ins with staff and other patients at the VA home over racial disparities.”

The three women who Wong kept as hostages -- Christine Loeber, 48; Jennifer Golick, 42; and Jennifer Gonzales, 29 -- were part of the Pathway Home residential  program designed to help veterans readjust to civilian life and to cope with PTSD.  The three women victims were  

According to law enforcement sources, Wong had reportedly threatened one of the women with violence and that was the reason he was dismissed from the program.

"One of the last long messages he wrote me was that he was involved in the (Pathway Home) program," Cissy Sherr said. "He sounded so hopeful that he was getting help there. That there was a live-in component of it, because he knew that his living situation was difficult."

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Asian American gunman found dead along with the slain hostages

Albert Wong served in the U.S. Army.

SUFFERING FROM post traumatic stress disorder, combat veteran Albert Wong killed three hostages then turned his gun on himself Friday (March 9) evening.
Wong, wearing combat gear around 10:30 a.m., who slipped into  the Veterans Home in Yountville, California during a going-away party. He held party goers hostage but let some go while detaining three women. 

He exchanged shots with the first law enforcement officer who responded to 911 calls. Wong held off police for hours before the standoff's tragic ending.

Attempts to contact the gunmen during the standoff were unsuccessful. After a 7-hour seige, police entered the building only to find the four bodies.

The three people he had held hostage were all working in the Pathway Home program located on the veterans home campus to help U.S. veterans adjust to civilian life and cope with PTSD.

The three victims were:

• Jennifer Golick, 42 years old, Clinical Director, from St Helena
• Christine Loeber, 48 years old, Executive Director, from Napa
• Jennifer Gonzalez, 29 years old, Clinical Psychologist

It was "far too early to say if they were chosen at random" because investigators had not yet determined a motive, California Highway Patrol Assistant Chief Chris Childs said in a press conference.

RELATED: Gunman knew he needed help

"These brave women were accomplished professionals who dedicated their careers to serving our nation's veterans, working closely with those in the greatest need of attention after deployments in Iraq and Afghanistan," The Pathway Home said in a statement.


The nonprofit program, housed in offices leased at the Veterans Home of California in Yountville, has served more than 450 veterans and their families since its inception in 2007.

Wong, 36, is from Sacramento, about 45 minutes away from Yountville, located in the heart of California's Napa Valley. He used to be with the Pathway Home program, and records show he was a former Army infantryman who served a tour in Afghanistan.

Gov. Jerry Brown ordered flags flown at half-staff at the capitol in memory of the victims. 

Golick's father-in-law, Bob Golick, said in an interview she had recently expelled Wong from the program.

Read more here: http://www.sacbee.com/news/state/article204488554.html#storylink=cpy

The California Veterans Home, a state-run facility, in Yountville is one of the largest in the United States. It houses 1,100 men and women of all ages, from World War II era to present-day. The Veterans Home dates back to 1884 and is a 600-acre campus.

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