The Latest: Sheriff: No prior reports on vet home shooter | iNFOnews | Thompson-Okanagan's News Source
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The Latest: Sheriff: No prior reports on vet home shooter

A woman, who declined to give her name, cries after placing flowers at a sign at the Veterans Home of California, the morning after a hostage situation in Yountville, Calif., on Saturday, March 10, 2018. A daylong siege at The Pathway Home ended Friday evening with the discovery of four bodies, including the gunman, identified as Albert Wong, a former Army rifleman who served a year in Afghanistan in 2011-2012. (AP Photo/Josh Edelson)
Original Publication Date March 12, 2018 - 12:16 PM

YOUNTVILLE, Calif. - The Latest on the triple killing at a California veterans home (all times local):

4:45 p.m.

A Northern California sheriff's office says it did not receive any reports of a troubled combat veteran from mental health professionals before he killed three of them at a veterans home.

Napa County Sheriff's Capt. Steve Blower said Monday that the law enforcement agency would be a point of contact for counsellors at The Pathway Home if they were concerned a patient showed signs they were a danger to themselves or others.

A sheriff's deputy responded Friday morning to reports of shots fired by 36-year-old Albert Wong. The sheriff's office says a responding deputy exchanged gunfire before Wong retreated to a room and slammed shut the door.

No further shots were heard throughout a seven-hour siege police treated as a hostage situation.

Blower says it's now apparent the victims were shot shortly after they were taken because no other shots were heard.

The bodies of the three women and Wong were found about 6 p.m.

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This item has been corrected to say that the deputy was initially responding to a report of shots fired, not hostages taken.

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12:10 p.m.

A California agency says the former Army rifleman who killed three mental health workers at a California veterans home where he once received treatment lost his state licenses to be an armed security guard for failing to pay the fees.

California's Bureau of Security and Investigative Services said Monday that 36-year-old Albert Wong received permits to carry a 9-millimeter gun and to be a security guard on Oct. 21, 2008.

Bureau spokesman Matt Woodcheke said Wong lost his licenses after failing to pay the annual fees.

The bureau's license database lists Wong's two permits as expired on Oct. 31. It's unclear if that's the date when the bureau cancelled the permits for nonpayment.

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12:01 a.m.

Authorities have so far been tight-lipped about why a former Army rifleman might have killed three women at a Northern California veterans home.

Albert Wong had been enrolled in the veteran treatment program at The Pathway Home after several years of struggling following his deployment in Afghanistan.

The 36-year-old was recently expelled from Pathway Home, but authorities have not said why.

Officials did not return repeated messages from The Associated Press on Sunday and they have not answered questions about whether concerns about Wong were reported to authorities.

Police said Wong went Friday to the veterans home in Yountville, about 50 miles north of San Francisco, and slipped into a going-away party for two employees.

Police say Wong eventually killed three women.

Wong was found dead after an hours-long standoff.

News from © The Associated Press, 2018
The Associated Press

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