Thread: 5 of 9 people shot at Nev. IHOP were National Guard members

Ain't culture diversity great?

if it comes out this fool was illegal, murdering american sevicemen with illegally possesed firearms, oh boy.

Crime
Update: Man Who Shot 5 National Guard Members Filed for Bankruptcy Prior to Shooting

Posted on September 6, 2011 at 8:11pm by Tiffany Gabbay

CARSON CITY, Nev. (The Blaze/AP) — A gunman wielding an AK-47 opened fire on a table of uniformed National Guard members at an IHOP restaurant on Tuesday in an outburst of violence that killed four people, wounded eight others and put Nevada’s capital city on high alert as the shooter unloaded his assault rifle in a bustling business district.

The shooter’s motive was unclear, but family members said he had mental issues. He had never been in the military and had no known affiliation with anyone inside the restaurant.

Five Nevada National Guard troops sitting together at the back of the restaurant were shot – two of them fatally. Another woman was also killed, and the gunman, 32-year-old Eduardo Sencion of Carson City, shot himself in the head and died at a hospital.

Witnesses and authorities described a frantic scene, in which the shooter pulled into the large complex of retail stores and shops just before 9 a.m., got out of a blue minivan and immediately shot a man on a motorcycle.

Ralph Swagler said he grabbed his own weapon, but said it was too late to stop the shooter, who charged into the IHOP through the front doors.

“I wish I had shot at him but he was going in the IHOP,â€

9:20 a.m. update:

Officials identified the five people killed yesterday during the shooting rampage at an IHOP in Carson City.

Those killed included Major Heath Kelly, Sgt. First Class Christian Riege, Miranda McElniney and Florence Donavan Gunderson, the only civilian.

Also killed, the shooter, Eduardo Sencion of a self-inflicted wound.

Speaking of the serviceman, Gen. Bill Burks said they will be missed.

“The tapestry of these people’ rich life is hard to sum up in a few words, but their actions and the memories of them will remain in their hearts forever, Burks said.

The injuries of those who remain hospitalized range from “extremely life-threatening to less traumatic, said Carson City Sheriff Ken Furlong.


http://www.rgj.com/article/20110907/NEW ... |FRONTPAGE

Fox News just announced they would release information on what the shooter shouted as he began to shoot the soldiers, but later declined to do so and simply stated the local sheriff said there was a heated discussion over the shooter's remarks, but he would not release the content of those remarks. Stay tuned!!

Eduardo Sencion was receiving disability and owned part of the family business and worked there.

In interview, family says Carson City IHOP shooter wasn't angry; his motivation unclear

1:01 AM, Sep. 7, 2011 | 17Comments

The gunman who opened fire with an assault weapon at Nevada National Guard soldiers and others having breakfast at a Carson City IHOP on Tuesday morning, killing four people and injuring seven more before killing himself, had a "support our troops" sticker on the van he drove.

The paradox made the shooter, Eduardo Sencion, 32, of Carson City, even more of an enigma. Officials said Sencion had not been in the military, and they had no evidence that he was targeting the soldiers before entering the restaurant.

He worked in a South Lake Tahoe market owned by family members.
In an initial phone call by the Reno Gazette-Journal to the Lake Tahoe Mi Pueblo Market on Tuesday, a man claiming to be Eduardo Sencion answered the phone and said he didn't know anything about a shooting and wasn't aware of anyone having the same name.

But in a follow-up call after a reporter verified Eduardo Sencion's address and employer, the man at the Tahoe market identified himself as Gilberto Sencion Gonzalez, 46. He said he was Eduardo Sencion's elder brother and admitted knowing about the shootings.

Gilberto Sencion said he arrived in South Lake Tahoe from Sacramento on Tuesday afternoon to find the Mi Pueblo Market closed. He said he had just found out about his relative's rampage.

"I feel very sorry about what happened," he said. "I feel very sorry about those people. I'm trying to find out what happened "» How would you feel if your mom or your dad did this thing?"

He declined to discuss whether Eduardo Sencion had any mental health problems. He said he didn't think he was angry about anything.
Gilberto Sencion said he expected more media calls.

"You guys (the media) are going to make a lot of money from this," he said. "In order for me to give you more information, you will have to pay me a lot of money, too."

He declined to say anything further.

No criminal record

Eduardo Sencion had no criminal record, not even a traffic ticket, records show. Carson City officials said the Mexican native held a U.S. passport, which means he was a citizen. He had been issued a Nevada commercial driver's license 14 months ago, but he held a Nevada state identification card since 1998, state records show.

Francisco Rosales, 33, said Tuesday that he saw Eduardo Sencion's photo on TV and immediately came to the house of Sencion's brother, Geraldo.
While waiting outside the house on a quiet Carson City street, Rosales said Eduardo Sencion never showed any signs that he was capable of violence.

"He was quiet," Rosales said. "They told me he was kind of slow. He was OK, just kind of slow."

Geraldo Sencion later declined comment.

Carson City Sheriff Kenny Furlong said Sencion family members "hinted" that Eduardo Sencion had some history of mental problems. Furlong said the man "had no known affiliations" with anyone inside the restaurant.
Eduardo Sencion died soon after the massacre from a self-inflicted gunshot wound. He had two additional firearms, a handgun and another assault rifle, in his van in the IHOP parking lot, officials said. They said the van and the AK-47 rifle used in the shootings were registered to Eduardo Sencion's brother.

Eduardo Sencion is listed on the Nevada partnership papers of a family business called Mi Pueblo Markets LLC. The documents list Eduardo Sencion as the registered agent for the company and Gilberto Sencion Gonzalez and Israel Sencion Gonzalez as managing members. The business has locations in South Lake Tahoe and Stead, according to local business directories.

Furlong said Eduardo Sencion came down from the Lake Tahoe market on Monday and spent the night in Carson City. His family reported nothing "unusual" about him Monday night, he said.

A woman who answered the phone Tuesday at the Mi Pueblo Market 2 in Stead said she had never heard of the Sencion family or Mi Pueblo, although business listings indicate the South Lake Tahoe Mi Pueblo Market and the Mi Pueblo Market 2 in Stead are run by the same company. She said the business was "a grocery store."

Motives a mystery
Dr. David Reiss, a psychiatrist and owner of the psychiatric consulting firm DMRDynamics, with offices in Massachusetts and California, said investigators will have to piece together the crime by looking at Eduardo Sencion's past, particularly piecing together his activities over the past few days and weeks.

In general, he said, such rampages are often the result of a "perfect storm" of pressures that have been building for a long time. He said there appears to be some planning on Eduardo Sencion's part because he had weapons with him, but there's no way to tell at present why he picked that restaurant or whether people in uniform were his intended targets.
"When people do something like this, they usually dehumanize their targets in some way," he said. "They see them as less than human."
Even when Eduardo Sencion's medical history and past actions are known, he said, there might be no obvious answers.

"Lots of people are quiet, lots of people are slow or have some mental problems, even severe mental problems and pressures, but they don't do terrible things," Reiss said. "Why now? Why IHOP? Why Guardsmen?
"In some cases, people who have done horribly violent things can't even explain it themselves. Even they sometimes can't recover what was going on in their minds."

http://www.rgj.com/apps/pbcs.dll/articl ... 1109070358

This article refers to his alias of Eduardo Perez Gonzales.

Guardsmen killed in NV served in Iraq, Afghanistan
Sandra Chereb

Dozens of 911 calls made from in and around a Nevada IHOP detail a frantic scene as witnesses describe the shooter and dispatchers tried figure out if more than one person was involved in the rampage that killed four and wounded seven.

Callers describe victims gunned down inside the restaurant on tapes released Wednesday; the sheriff's office said those killed included two National Guard members who served overseas.

"In the IHOP! In the IHOP!" one caller said. "Now he's coming back out with a gun shooting people in the parking lot!"

The attack by lone gunman Eduardo Sencion, aka Eduardo Perez Gonzalez, left four dead and seven injured. Sencion also killed himself.

The dead included three Nevada National Guard members, identified Wednesday as: Sgt. 1st Class Christian Riege, 38, of Carson City; Major Heath Kelly, 35, of Reno; and Sgt. 1st Class Miranda McElhiney, 31, of Reno.

Brig. Gen. William R. Burks described the three as dedicated service members who were active in their fields.

Kelly was a decorated officer and avid student of military history who was known for his dry sense of humor, Burks said at a news conference.

Kelly was married with two kids, and served in Iraq from 2004 to 2005. He was deployed while on active duty with the Army, not as a member of the Nevada National Guard.

Riege was a fitness buff, a father of three and had also been in the Navy. His military occupation was armor crewman, and he served in Afghanistan from 2009 to 2010.

McElhiney was an administrative sergeant who had been with the Guard for 13 years. She served soldiers in the medical, dental and human resources fields.

McElhiney also had a side business making cakes and cupcakes and would always bring goodies when people got a promotion.

Burks said Guardsmen overseas are grieving the service members' loss, and were being told to maintain focus.

Also killed was Florence Donovan-Gunderson, 67, of South Lake Tahoe.

"This is unquestionably the most devastating attack in Carson City's history," Carson City Sheriff Kenny Furlong said at a news conference Wednesday. "Yesterday our town was shocked to the core."

Just before 9 a.m. Tuesday, Sencion stepped onto the Carson City pancake house parking lot from his blue minivan with a yellow "Support Our Troops" sticker on it.

He opened fire, then continued into the restaurant and marched toward a table of uniformed National Guard members before shooting each one, and fatally wounding three of them, authorities said.

On the 911 tapes, callers describe seeing a man wearing a red shirt and black pants. Many are crying as dispatchers frantically try to gather information on where the shooter went.

"Our hearts ache for all the victims of this senseless act of violence," IHOP Restaurants President Jean Birch wrote on Facebook after coming to town in the aftermath of the breakfast-time massacre. "The people of Carson City have also shown incredible support for the victims and IHOP's team members."

Seven people were wounded in the attack. Their names have not been released, but Furlong said Wednesday their injuries range from severe to extremely life-threatening.

Lawmakers, business owners and law enforcement officials in this close-knit, government-driven city of 50,000 struggled to understand what drove Sencion _ aka Eduardo Perez Gonzalez _ to turn an AK-47 assault rifle on his hometown.

"It's unprecedented in Carson City history," said Guy Rocha, retired Nevada state archivist. "People who live in Carson City have come from other places to get away from the large urban madness. ... It finally came to Carson City.

Authorities are investigating whether the military members were targeted. Furlong said Wednesday it's still unclear whether Sencion was targeting people in the military.

Sencion shot each of the five Nevada National Guard troops sitting together at the back of the restaurant. Another woman was shot and killed.

Family members told investigators that Sencion, 32, was mentally troubled, but he did not have a criminal history. He was pronounced dead at a local hospital hours after the mass shooting.

"The sheriff may never know the motive," Nevada Highway Patrol spokesman Chuck Allen said.

The shooting happened roughly two miles from the state Capitol in Carson City.

Sencion stepped out of the minivan and immediately shot a woman near a motorcycle before charging into the chain restaurant. Witnesses said he had unloaded a magazine when he was still less than 12 feet from his car.

Officials were analyzing the assault rifle to determine whether it is automatic or semi-automatic. Sencion left two more guns in the van _ another rifle and a pistol, authorities said. Furlong said law enforcement agencies are investigating how Sencion got the guns.

The violent outburst rattled Nevada's capital city after the long Labor Day weekend when many officials, including Gov. Brian Sandoval, had left town. Carson City is also a jumping off point 30 miles south of Reno for travelers headed to Lake Tahoe or back to California across the Sierra.

Nevada officials initially feared the worst as news of the shooting spread. The state Capitol and Supreme Court buildings were briefly closed and extra security were sent to guard state and military buildings in northern Nevada to prevent further violence. The IHOP is several miles from the Guard's state headquarters complex.

Sencion was born in Mexico and had a valid U.S. passport. He worked at a family business in South Lake Tahoe and had no known affiliations with anyone inside the restaurant, Furlong said. He was not in the military.

Sencion filed for bankruptcy protection in January 2009, listing more than $42,000 in outstanding debts for a car, several credit cards and some medical expenses. The case was discharged four months later.

A lawyer representing some of Sencion's family members called the shooting "an aberration of his character."

http://www.realclearpolitics.com/news/a ... istan.html