A shooting/hostage crisis at the Veteran’s Home of California in Yountville left four people died on Friday, including three female victims and the deceased shooter. The shooting reportedly first occurred at 10:20 A.M. (local time), which quickly turned into a hostage situation that lasted almost nine hours. When officers walked into the room of the hostage situation shortly before 6 P.M. that night, they discovered the bodies of the alleged shooter and three female victims.
The shooter has been identified as 36-year-old Army infantryman Albert Wong. The three victims have also been identified as 42-year-old Jennifer Golick, 48-year-old Christine Loeber, and 32-year-old Jennifer Gonzales. Each victim worked for The Pathway Home at the Veteran’s Home of California, which provides counseling services to veterans sufferring with Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD).
“They lived their lives selflessly to serve others,” said Yountville Mayor John Dunbar. “Each of them brought energy, vitality, personality to their jobs and that’s so critical when we’re talking about supporting our veterans.”
Dunbar also called the three victims, “beautiful people.”
Here’s a look at the three women who were shot dead during a hostage crisis/shooting at the Veteran’s Home of California in Yountville.
Jennifer Golick, 42
Yountville CA Hostage Deaths – Jennifer Golick – LinkedIn
Jennifer Golick served as a staff pathologist at The Pathway Home. She is also a certified clinical director from St. Helena. Golick was employed at the teen treatment center at Muir Wood Adolescent and Family Services for five years before moving onto a job at The Pathway Home, according to Scott Sowle, the executive director at Muir Wood Adolescent and Family Services.
Sowle took to Facebook on Saturday to write that Golick had helped “countless families heal.”
“The boys at Muir Wood would literally line up at her office door waiting for her to arrive in the morning,” Sowle said, writing that Golick was “one of the brightest I’ve known, always with a big, warm smile and just the right words to say.”
Golick had a daughter named Makena and a husband named Mark. She had left Muir Wood in order to get closer to her family, according to Sowle.
“They were high school sweethearts,” Sowle said. “Family was everything to her. If there is a place where the best of us go after this life, Jennifer is most certainly there.”
Christine Loeber, 48
Yountville CA Hostage Deaths – Christine Loeber – LinkedIn
Christine Loeber had been employed at The Pathway House since 2016, working as their executive director. She is from Napa, California.
According to the University of New Hampshire’s Twitter page, Loeber graduated from UNH in 1991 with a communications degree. The tweet said that “the university was devastated to learn she was a victim of such a senseless tragedy.”
In 2008, Loeber graduated from Boston College with a master’s degree in social work, according to school spokesman Jack Dunn. “She distinguished herself as a gifted student who was passionate about serving veterans,” said Dunn in an interview with CNN on Saturday.
Jennifer Gonzales, 32
Yountville CA Hostage Deaths – Jennifer Gonzalez – PscyhArmor
Jennifer Gonzales was employed as a clinical psychologist with the San Francisco Department of Veterans Affairs Health Care System. She also worked as a trainer with PsychArmor, a non-profit organization that offers free education to anyone within the military community, according to the Institute’s CEO Majorie Morrison.
“Jennifer went the extra mile by sharing her knowledge and time to collaborate (for free) on a (PsychArmor) course,” Morrison said. “She was young, smart and beautiful. There are absolutely no words to make sense of this senseless, horrific tragedy.”
Morrison said that her company will work to set up a memorial fund to Gonzales.
Gonzales graduated from Palo Alto University in 2003 with a doctorate in psychology.
“Jenn was a sunny, beautiful, unfailingly kind little girl who grew up to be a sunny, beautiful, unfailingly kind woman,” said Susan Hennessey who claims to have known Gonzales for 26 years. “She made everyone who knew her better and she will be missed forever and ever.”
Hennessey, who works as executive editor of a national security blog called Lawfare, noted that Gonzales dedicated her life to helping veterans. She also noted that Gonzales was pregnant at the time of her death.
According to Gonzales’ GoFundMe page, she had been married for a year.
