Gunfire and hostages at Napa County Veterans home

UPDATE
News reports say he is a young, recent veteran and was removed from a PTSD program.

Not a good thing for 1,000 veterans in the home.

update

YOUNTVILLE, CALIF. (AP) — The Latest on an armed man at a veterans home in Northern California(all times local):

1:30 p.m.

Jan Thornton of Vallejo is among hundreds of relatives worried about their loved ones at a Northern California veterans home that was locked down after reports of an active shooter.

Thornton says her 96-year-old father — a WWII fighter pilot — is inside a hospital wing at the home in Yountville, north of San Francisco.

Reminder, this is a State run veterans home...not The Department of Veterans Affairs.

Police descend on Napa County veterans home after gunfire, hostage report
Mercury News
By ROBERT SALONGA
March 9, 2018

Reports suggest that gunman is former resident of veterans home and may be suffering from PTSD-type issues

YOUNTVILLE — The Yountville Veterans Home in Napa County was placed on lockdown Friday morning after reports a gunman opened fire near the facility’s main dining hall and took hostages, authorities said.

“The safety of our residents, workers and the community is our top priority,” the state Department of Veterans Affairs said in a Twitter post. “We have activated our emergency response protocol and are cooperating with law enforcement.”

A Napa fire official and the California Highway Patrol affirmed that an armed man took at least two hostages at the veterans home and described the incident as an “active shooter situation.” The Napa County Sheriff’s Office reported that shots had been fired, but there were no immediate reports of any casualties.
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Purpose for Hospital Hostage Situation Not Known Yet

Family member of Waxahachie hostage suspect blames PTSD for incident
FOX 4
September 4, 2016

A family member of Lorenzo Zarate, the man police say walked into a Waxahachie ER waiting room Saturday night and threatened to hurt his two children, is blaming PTSD for his relative’s actions.

Zarate is in the Ellis County jail on $200,000 bond, facing charges of aggravated assault with a deadly weapon, terroristic threats, placing the public in fear of serious injury and attempting to take a weapon from an officer.

Sunday, a man claiming to be his uncle, posted about Zarate and the incident on Facebook, saying, in part, "My boy fought and served America in its time of need. He needs America to understand PTSD. It's real".

Zarate is an Iraq War veteran from Austin, featured in several news publications in 2008 -- the year he came home from serving in Iraq.

Waxahachie Police say Zarate carried both a baby and a gun into the Baylor Scott and White ER waiting room Saturday night before 7:00 P.M. with another child by his side.
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4 dead, including gunman, in Aurora, Colorado

Police: 4 dead, including gunman, in Aurora, Colo., hostage situation
By NBC News staff
Updated at 12:45 p.m. ET:

Three people were found dead inside a home in Aurora, Colo., after a gunman took them hostage early Saturday morning, police told NBC affiliate KUSA. The gunman was also shot and killed by police after hours of failed negotiation attempts.

Another person who had been inside the house was able to escape and alert authorities, KUSA reported.

Officers were called to a town home around 3 a.m. after reports of shots fired. Several nearby homes were evacuated for safety reasons and police sent out emergency notifications for the other residents in the area.
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UPDATE

Four dead in hostage-taking in Aurora, Colorado
By Keith Coffman
AURORA, Colo.
Sat Jan 5, 2013

(Reuters) - Four people, including the gunman, were dead following a hostage-taking incident on Saturday in Aurora, Colorado, the same town where a man shot dead 12 people and wounded 58 more in a movie theater last July, police told reporters.

After nearly six hours of failed negotiations, police killed the gunman as he opened fire on them through a second-story window of a townhouse where he had barricaded himself, said Aurora police spokeswoman Cassidee Carlson.

It was unclear from police and media reports whether officers entered the home or shot the man through the window. KUSA television reported that he was killed after police fired tear gas and entered the home, where they found three more bodies.

The victims were believed to be related to the gunman, Carlson said.
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Latest UPDATE

Four dead in townhouse shooting in Aurora, Colorado
Sat Jan 5, 2013 5:26pm

About an hour later, the gunman began firing at police again from a second-floor window, and police returned fire, killing the suspect, according to a police statement following the incident. No police were wounded.

Officers, hostage wounded in Alliance stand-off

Officers, hostage wounded in Alliance stand-off
ALLIANCE
The Nebraska State Patrol released on Wednesday the name of the armed man who wounded three law enforcement officers and a hostage, who was pronounced dead after a more than 14-hour stand-off at an Alliance pharmacy.

The suspect, identified as Andres Gonzalez, 27, of Alliance, was pronounced dead at approximately 11:30 p.m., Tuesday, June 12.

The incident began just before 9 a.m., Tuesday, when an armed male later identified as Gonzalez, walked into the Thiele Pharmacy, in the 300 block of Box Butte Avenue, downtown Alliance.

Officers with the Alliance Police Department responded to a 911 call reporting an armed man entering the building.

During the initial response, Gonzalez exchanged gunfire with an Alliance Police Officer.

Officer Kirk Felker, 43, a 15-year veteran of the Alliance Police Department, was transported to the Box Butte General Hospital where he underwent surgery for a gunshot wound to his arm.

Officer Felker remains hospitalized in stable condition. No one else was injured in the initial confrontation.

The owner of the pharmacy, Charles Lierk, 62, Alliance remained inside the building and was taken hostage by Gonzalez.
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Winn Army Community Hospital hostage situation ends

Hostage situation at Fort Stewart ends without casualties
By the CNN Wire Staff
September 6, 2010 11:45 a.m. EDT

STORY HIGHLIGHTS
NEW: The gunman, an ex-soldier, had four weapons, base spokesman says
Gunman is taken into custody, spokesman says
"Everyone is safe," spokesman says
Check out a local report on the hostage situation from CNN affiliate WTOC-TV in Savannah, Georgia.

(CNN) -- A hostage situation that lasted about two hours at Fort Stewart, Georgia, ended Monday without injuries, and a gunman is in custody, a spokesman for the Army base said.

The gunman -- a former soldier -- entered the Winn Army Community Hospital at about 4 a.m. ET and demanded care, spokesman Kevin Larson said.

He immediately took one hostage and went to the third floor, which houses the behavioral health unit, where he held two more people at gunpoint, including a nurse practitioner, Larson said.
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Hostage situation at Fort Stewart ends without casualties
linked from RawStory

Tenn. hostage situation ends in 4 dead

Tenn. hostage situation ends in 4 dead
Published: Aug. 25, 2009 at 6:33 PM
MOOSEBURG, Tenn., Aug. 25 (UPI) -- A hostage situation in a Mooseburg, Tenn., barn ended Tuesday with four people dead, including the hostage taker-shooter, sheriff's department officials said.

The apparent multiple murder-suicide was discovered after more than three dozen heavily armed police tactical unit officers entered the barn where the killings occurred, WJHL-TV, Johnson City, reported.
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Tenn. hostage situation ends in 4 dead

Briton held hostage in Iraq 'kills himself'

Briton held hostage in Iraq 'kills himself'
Published Date: 20 July 2008
By Gareth Rose
MILITANTS in Iraq say a British hostage has committed suicide in despair at the UK government's failure to negotiate his release.

The news emerged on a videotape released by insurgents who have been holding five men for more than a year.

The tape contained a heart-rending plea from another hostage, a Scottish bodyguard known only as Alan, for the British government to intervene.

Looking pale and drawn he faced the camera and said: "Despite my good treatment over the last year, physically I'm not doing well. Psychologically I'm doing a lot worse.

"The thought of not seeing my family again… just isn't doing well with me at all."
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http://scotlandonsunday.scotsman.com/latestnews/Briton-held-hostage-in-Iraq.4306390.jp

Former Colombian hostages face lasting trauma

Fernando Vergara / AP
Former hostage John Freddy Diaz, pictured in Bogota on Tuesday, was captured in 1998 by the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) and released in 2001.

Former Colombian hostages face lasting trauma
The pain of a kidnapping rarely ends with liberation
updated 3:26 a.m. ET, Sat., July. 19, 2008
BOGOTA, Colombia - Former Colombian rebel captive John Freddy Diaz knows something that recently freed hostages may just be discovering: The pain of a kidnapping doesn't end with liberation.

Seven years after his release, the tall, 31-year-old former army private hardly works and feels bitterly alienated. He says he's prone to self-injury and fits of violence against strangers.

"I've had lots of crises," said Diaz, who was held captive for three years — far shorter than most. He sobbed as he admitted to occasionally beating his head against walls and "trying to hit people I don't even know."

Many will face a life of disorientation, insomnia and panic, not to mention broken marriages and strained family relations, mental health professionals say.

"Victims leave a kidnapping psychologically disoriented in a big way, and it increases according to the intensity and length of their captivity," said Ismael Roldan, former director of the National University's department of psychiatry.
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Ex-hostages head home to 'be family men again' in Florida

updated 21 minutes ago


Ex-hostages head home to 'be family men again'
Story Highlights
Ex-FARC hostages leave Texas medical center 10 days after rescue

Freed men ask for privacy, saying they want to spend time with relatives

Men ask media to not forget about hostages who still held in Colombia
(CNN) -- Three Americans rescued last week from captivity in the Colombian jungle left a medical center for their homes Saturday, hoping for some time out of the spotlight as they reconnect with loved ones.


"There's family members that are waiting for us, and just imagine if you hadn't seen your family in 5½ years," Stansell said, asking the media to allow the former captives some space. "Let us go home and be family men again."

"We're going to come out and we're going to talk, but right now, what we want to do is rest," Gonsalves said.

All three were headed home to Florida, and Stansell and Howes flashed their new Florida driver's licenses before they boarded a plane.
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Soldier killed in standoff after taking ex-girlfriend hostage

Soldier killed in standoff after taking ex-girlfriend hostage

By David Rising - The Associated Press
Posted : Friday Mar 14, 2008 11:07:59 EDT

BERLIN — A U.S. soldier was fatally shot in a confrontation with German police after taking his ex-girlfriend hostage, police said Friday.

The 30-year-old soldier, stationed in Schweinfurt, tied up his ex-girlfriend in her apartment in the southern town of Koenigsberg and threatened her with violence, police spokesman Karl-Heinz Schmitt said.

She managed to escape and alert police, who then started a hunt for the soldier and used a helicopter with a thermal camera to locate him near the apartment at about 11 p.m. Thursday.

Police commandos found and confronted the soldier, who threatened them with an M4 rifle, according to a police statement.

“During the attempt to arrest the armed man, officers were threatened with the weapon” and police opened fire, the statement said.

The soldier was critically injured, and rushed to a Schweinfurt hospital. Emergency surgery was performed, but he died several hours later, police said.

The M4 rifle had only half a magazine when impounded, but it was not immediately clear whether he had fired it, police said.

The investigation also has determined that the M4 had been legally in the soldier’s possession during the day but that he had not followed regulations requiring him to turn it in in the evening, police said.

Prosecutors in nearby Bamberg said there were no grounds to open an investigation of the police involved.

“The officer had to assume that the suspect would shoot at him with the weapon,” police said.
go here for the rest

http://www.armytimes.com/news/2008/03/ap_germanykilled_031408/