Thread: Sheriff: Gunman used AK-47 to shoot five Guardsmen at Nevada

by SANDRA CHEREB

Associated Press

Posted on September 6, 2011 at 6:47 PM

Updated today at 6:50 PM

CARSON CITY, Nev. (AP) — A man with an AK-47 assault rifle shot an entire group of five uniformed National Guard members eating breakfast at a Nevada IHOP on Tuesday, killing two of them and another person in a hail of gunfire.

The suspect, 32-year-old Eduardo Sencion of Carson City, also shot himself and later died at a hospital. Seven people were wounded in the attack at a strip mall near a casino and department store in the state's capital.

The gunman's motive was unclear, but authorities are investigating whether the military members were targeted. The two Guardsmen killed were men; another woman also was shot and killed.

Carson City Sheriff Kenny Furlong said Sencion entered the front doors of the IHOP and traveled "all the way through the restaurant to the back area" before opening fire.

"Obviously with five out of the 11 victims uniformed National Guardsmen, that has taken a priority interest in our investigation," Furlong said.

Sencion worked at his family's business in South Lake Tahoe, he was not in the military, and he had no known affiliations with anyone at the restaurant, Furlong said. He also had no criminal history.

Sencion's family raised concerns about his mental health in interviews with investigators, Furlong said. He did not elaborate.

Sencion filed for bankruptcy protection in January 2009. His former lawyer in Carson City and Reno, Joe Laub, said he was surprised to learn Sencion was identified as the shooter.

He called the shooting an "aberration of his character."

"He's a gentle, kind man who was very helpful to friends and family," Laub told The Associated Press. "I couldn't venture to guess what would cause him to do something as horrible as this."

The owner of a nearby barbecue restaurant described a frantic scene in which the gunman pulled up and immediately shot a man on a motorcycle, then charged into the IHOP, where the Guard members were meeting.

Ralph Swagler said he grabbed his own weapon, but said it was too late to stop the shooter.

"I wish I had shot at him but he was going in the IHOP," said Swagler, who owns Locals BBQ & Grill. "But when he came at me, when somebody is pointing an automatic weapon at you — you can't believe the firepower, the kind of rounds coming out of that weapon."

Nevada officials first worried about the violence being more widespread. They locked down the state Capitol and Supreme Court buildings for about 40 minutes, and put extra security in place at state and military buildings in northern Nevada.

"There were concerns at the onset, so we took certain steps to ensure we had the capability to embrace an even larger circumstance," Furlong said. "At this point in time it appears to be isolated to this parking lot."

The IHOP is about four miles from the Guard's headquarters complex. Nevada National Guard spokeswoman April Conway said she didn't know why the five Guard members had met at the IHOP.

At a Reno hospital, service members gathered, waiting for word on those killed and hurt. A hospital spokesman said four shooting victims were being treated there, but wouldn't discuss their conditions or provide any other information.

"You go a whole tour in Afghanistan and no one is shot. And you go to IHOP and several are shot," said 31-year-old Sgt. First Class Cameron Anderson of Reno, a Nevada Army National Guard member. "It's a shock. I came to work today and had no idea I'd be driving the chaplain here (to the hospital.)"

Another Guard member, 33-year-old Spc. Lee Amato, said he didn't know the victims' names but expected they were people he knew.

"It's hard to believe something like this would happen to really good people," Amato said. "It's like a hole, something taken away. It's mind-boggling and hard to comprehend."

At the scene of the attack, police interviewed dozens of witnesses and kept the gathering crowd of media at bay. A body lay on the ground, covered with a white sheet except for the feet, clad in tan boots.

The gunman pulled up to the IHOP in a blue minivan around 9 a.m. in a minivan registered to his brother, Furlong said. Witnesses said he unloaded a clip before he got even 12 feet from his car.

Fran Hunter, a regular customer at that IHOP, decided to eat breakfast across the street at a coffee shop inside the Casino Fandango.

"If you know the IHOP, they had to be sitting ducks with that long narrow aisle — if they were at those tables with no way to get out," said Hunter, who works at a pet supply store in the strip mall.

"Those people never stood a chance," Hunter told The Associated Press.

Once he exited the restaurant, Furlong said the gunman got into a vehicle and drove around in circles. He fired shots toward the barbecue restaurant, shattering the windows, and at an H&R Block and a casino across the street.

Officers responded to calls reporting the gunfire within minutes, Furlong said. The suspect was wounded and lying in the parking lot when they arrived at the scene, he said.

The person who was shot on the motorcycle also was alive when officers arrived, and was transported to a hospital.

Furlong says they're analyzing the weapon to determine whether it is automatic or semi-automatic.

Nevada's capital city of some 50,000 is normally a sleepy town when lawmakers are not in session, a jumping off point 30 miles south of Reno for travelers headed to Lake Tahoe or back to California across the Sierra.

"I don't know what's happening to my city," Fran Hunter, who works at the Sierra Le Bone pet shop just north of the IHOP, told the Reno Gazette-Journal. "This happens in L.A. or Las Vegas but not here."

http://www.wfaa.com/news/national/Sheri ... 43283.html

RELATED

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

Eduardo Sencion has been identified as the shooter

http://www.alipac.us/ftopict-249330.html

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New details on number of victims, gunman in Carson IHOP shooting

Notes from 5 p.m. press conference: The gunman, Eduardo Sencion, is not believed to have known anyone at the IHOP restaurant where he shot 11 people Tuesday morning.

Carson City Sheriff says only one person was shot outside the restaurant.


5 of the 11 people shot were military personnel.


Motivation for the shootings has not been determined.


Sencion was not married and not in a relationship. Rumors about a domestic disturbance prior to the shootings are incorrect, Carson City Sheriff Ken Furlong said.


ATF is assisting in finding out where Sencion got his two rifles and one pistol associated with the incident. Two of the guns were discovered inside Sencion's vehicle.


Both deceased military members were men. A woman was also shot and killed inside the IHOP, Furlong said.


---------------------


4:45 p.m. update: The partnership papers for the Mi Pueblo Markets LLC list Eduardo Sencion as the registered agent for the company and Gilberto Sencion Gonzalez and Israel Sencion Gonzalez as managing partners. The business has locations in South Lake Tahoe and Stead.


Gilberto Sencion Gonzalez, 46, who identified himself as Eduardo’s brother, said he arrived in South Lake Tahoe from Sacramento Tuesday afternoon to find the Mi Pueblo Market closed. He said he had just found out about the shootings.


Initially, Gilberto denied being related to Eduardo, but during a follow-up call he confirmed he knew about the shootings.


“I feel very sorry about what happened,â€

[quote="topsecret10"]New details on number of victims, gunman in Carson IHOP shooting

Notes from 5 p.m. press conference: The gunman, Eduardo Sencion, is not believed to have known anyone at the IHOP restaurant where he shot 11 people Tuesday morning.

Carson City Sheriff says only one person was shot outside the restaurant.


5 of the 11 people shot were military personnel.


Motivation for the shootings has not been determined.


Sencion was not married and not in a relationship. Rumors about a domestic disturbance prior to the shootings are incorrect, Carson City Sheriff Ken Furlong said.


ATF is assisting in finding out where Sencion got his two rifles and one pistol associated with the incident. Two of the guns were discovered inside Sencion's vehicle.


Both deceased military members were men. A woman was also shot and killed inside the IHOP, Furlong said.


---------------------


4:45 p.m. update: The partnership papers for the Mi Pueblo Markets LLC list Eduardo Sencion as the registered agent for the company and Gilberto Sencion Gonzalez and Israel Sencion Gonzalez as managing partners. The business has locations in South Lake Tahoe and Stead.


Gilberto Sencion Gonzalez, 46, who identified himself as Eduardo’s brother, said he arrived in South Lake Tahoe from Sacramento Tuesday afternoon to find the Mi Pueblo Market closed. He said he had just found out about the shootings.


Initially, Gilberto denied being related to Eduardo, but during a follow-up call he confirmed he knew about the shootings.


“I feel very sorry about what happened,â€

1. We need to know if 32-year-old Eduardo Sencion of Carson City is an American citizen, legal immigrant, or illegal alien.

2. We need to know how he got that gun if he is an immigrant or illegal alien and if it is one of the thousands of AK-47s that the Obama administration bought the drug cartels with our tax monies?

W

Also, how did he get a "valid" Nevada drivers license if here illegally.

3:17 p.m. update: Authorities say Sencion is a Carson City resident associated with a business in the South Lake Tahoe area. His date of birth is in 1979 and Carson City Sheriff Kenny Furlong said Sencion possessed a U.S. Passport.

3 p.m. update: The shooter in the International House of Pancakes in Carson City has been identified as Eduardo Sencion of Carson City

http://www.rgj.com/article/20110906/NEW ... dyssey=mod

http://www.alipac.us/ftopict-249330.html

The reason for the shooting was unknown, Furlong said. Sencion, an American citizen, was not in the military and did not know anyone inside the IHOP, Furlong said. A yellow-ribbon bumper sticker on Sencion's van urged support for troops.

http://www.rgj.com/article/20110906/NEW ... |FRONTPAGE

http://www.alipac.us/ftopict-249330.html

Gunman Kills Two National Guard Members, One Other in Shooting

Rampage at Nevada IHOP

Published September 06, 2011
| FoxNews.com











Authorities identified the gunman behind a deadly rampage at a Nevada IHOP as a 32-year-old local man, who opened fire with an AK-47 on five uniformed National Guard members, killing 2 and another person before killing himself.

Police say Eduardo Sencion of Carson City arrived in a minivan registered to his brother, and opened fire at an IHOP restaurant in Nevada's capital city Tuesday, wounding eight people and killing three before fatally shooting himself.

This picture, provided by the Reno Journal Gazette, shows the IHOP restaurant in Carson City, Nev., where multiple people were shot Tuesday.

Sept. 6: Officers look through a bullet-damaged window of an IHOP restaurant in Carson City. Seven people were wounded after a gunman opened fire at the restaurant, authorities said.
Related Slideshow

Gunman Kills Two National Guard Members, One Other, Wounds Seven
Authorities have identified the gunman who shot five uniformed National Guard members with an AK-47 at a Nevada IHOP, killing two of them and a third person in a hail of gunfire as a 32-year-old local man with no known affiliations with anyone inside the restaurant.

Aside from the AK-47 rifle used in the attack, authorities say they found a pistol and another rifle in the minivan Sencion left in the parking lot.
Carson City Sheriff Kenny Furlong said Sencion was not in the military, had no known ties to anyone in the restaurant and had worked at a family business in South Lake Tahoe. Family members say Sencion had mental issues.

"We came into this with everything we had. All agencies were committed to it," Furlong told the Associated Press. "There were concerns at the onset, so we took certain steps to ensure we had the capability to embrace an even larger circumstance. At this point in time it appears to be isolated to this parking lot."

Gilberto Sencion Gonzalez, 46, identified himself as Eduardo's brother and told the Reno Gazette-Journal, "I feel very sorry about what happened."
"I feel very sorry about those people. I'm trying to find out what happened," he said.

Witnesses said a man pulled up in a blue minivan around 9 a.m. at the IHOP restaurant in a strip mall on Carson City's main street. He shot a man on a motorcycle, then walked inside the restaurant and started shooting, said Ralph Swagler, owner of Locals Barbecue in the same strip mall as the IHOP.

Both Guard members killed were men, authorities said.
Swagler told the Reno Gazette-Journal that after several minutes, the man walked outside and began firing into the Locals Barbecue and an H&R Block in the strip mall.

"This happens in third-world countries, not here," Swagler said.
Fran Hunter, who works at Sierra Le Bone, a pet shop just north of the IHOP, told the newspaper that the suspect fired at least two shots toward Casino Fandango across the street.

"I don't know what's happening to my city," Hunter said. "This happens in L.A. or Las Vegas but not here."

Local and state police and FBI agents descended on the scene, and yellow police tape surrounded the parking lot at the restaurant, which is near a Kohl's department store.

Renown Regional Medicare Center spokesman Dan Davis told The Associated Press four victims of the shooting were being treated at the hospital in Reno, but he said he could not discuss their condition or provide any other information.

Kurt Althof, public relations manager for Care Flight, told the Gazette-Journal three victims had been taken to the hospital by helicopter and that two were in critical condition.

Nevada Highway Patrol Trooper Chuck Allen said extra security measures were put in place at state and military buildings in northern Nevada as a safety precaution.

"As you know, when you have people in uniform who are randomly targeted for whatever reason this may have been, it is a safety precaution we take very seriously," Allen said.
Sen. Harry Reid, D-Nev., released a statement expressing condolences to the victims' families.

"I'm deeply saddened by this senseless act and extend my sympathies to those afflicted this morning," Reid said. "I applaud the first responders for their professionalism, and my thoughts are with the victims and their families during this difficult time."

Rep. Joe Heck, R-Nev., posted on Twitter that his heart and prayers go out to the victims' friends and families. And state Sen. Ben Kieckhefer tweeted: "My God be with the families of those hurt and killed in the senseless violence today in Carson City."

Furlong says Sencion was born in Mexico and was in the U.S. under a valid U.S. passport.


Read more: http://www.foxnews.com/us/2011/09/06/at ... z1XEBlzzuq