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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Hawaii soldier Indicted for attempting to provide material support to ISIS

A federal grand jury in Honolulu indicted a U.S. soldier Friday (July 21) for allegedly attempting to provide material support to the Islamic State group.

Army Sgt. 1st Class Ikaika Kang was arrested by an FBI SWAT team on July 8. Kang was ordered held without bail.

An indictment was returned July 21 charging Sgt. First Class Kang, 34, stationed at Schofield Barracks, Hawaii, with attempting to provide material support to the Islamic State of Iraq and al-Sham (ISIS), a designated foreign terrorist organization.

Sgt. Ikaika Kang

The grand jury indictment, which was filed on July 19, charged Kang with four counts of attempting to provide material support to ISIS, based on events that occurred in Hawaii between June 21 and July 8. 

The indictment and an earlier criminal complaint allege that Kang met with undercover agents of the FBI whom he believed to be affiliated with ISIS and provided military information, some of which was classified at the SECRET level. 

Kang is also charged with providing property (a drone,s military clothing and equipment) and training (instruction on combat techniques and weapons training which was videotaped for future use by ISIS) to undercover agents whom he believed to be affiliated with ISIS.

Kang will appear in court on July 24, for an arraignment and plea on the charges, at which time a trial date will be scheduled.

Kang's court-appointed attorney, Birney Bervar, told The Associated Press Friday that the indictment was expected. Bervar said his client was "a decorated American soldier for 10 years, goes to Afghanistan and comes back and things start going off the rails.” He said his client will plead not guilty on Monday when a federal judge will set a trial date.

Bervar said he is working on getting Kang a mental health evaluation and that his client may suffer from service-related mental health issues.

Kang enlisted in the Army in December 2001, just months after the Sept. 11 attacks. He served in South Korea from 2002 to 2003. He deployed to Iraq from March 2010 to February 2011. 

Sgt. Ikaika Kang had been trained as an air traffic controller and was one of the army's highly trained combat instructors.

The Army said it was aware of Kang's pro-Isis sentiments in 2011 but kept him in the service to build a case and to see if he was connected to a terrorist group. The FBI said that Kang acted on his own accord.

Kang's father told Honolulu television station KHON and the Star-Advertiser newspaper his son may have had post-traumatic stress disorder. Kang told the newspaper he became concerned after his son's return from Afghanistan. He said his son became withdrawn after Afghanistan.

"He was reprimanded on several occasions for threatening to hurt or kill other service members, and for arguing pro-ISIS views while at work and on-post,” according to the affidavit. “Due to these remarks and threats, Kang’s security clearance was revoked in 2012, but reinstated the following year after Kang complied with military requirements stemming from the investigation.”

He was assigned to duty in Afghanistan in 2013-2014.

An indictment is merely an allegation, and a defendant is presumed innocent unless and until proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt in a court of law. If convicted of the charges, 

Kang faces a maximum of 20 years in prison and up to a $250,000 fine for each count. The maximum statutory sentence is prescribed by Congress and is provided here for informational purposes. If convicted of any offense, the sentencing of the defendant will be determined by the court based on the advisory Sentencing Guidelines and other statutory factors.

The case was investigated by the FBI and the U.S. Army Criminal Investigation Division. This case is being prosecuted by Trial Attorney Taryn Meeks of the National Security Division’s Counterterrorism Section and Assistant U.S. Attorneys Ken Sorenson and Marc Wallenstein.

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