Gunman, 3 female hostages found dead at California war veterans facility

A gunman and three female hostages have been found dead at a war veterans care facility in the US state of California, following a nearly  eight-hour standoff with police, the state’s police said.

The mass killing took place Friday at around 6:00 pm local time at the Veterans Home of California in Yountville, about 53 miles (85 kilometers) north of San Francisco.

The three female victims were employees of the state-run facility, the nation’s largest veterans home which houses about 1,000 elderly and disabled veterans of wars dating back to World War II.

The bodies of the four were discovered nearly eight hours after the gunman slipped into the Pathway Home, a privately run program on the grounds of the veterans home, which treats combat veterans of the Iraq and Afghanistan wars with post-traumatic stress disorder.

The Pathway Home, a privately run program on the grounds of the veterans home, treats veterans of the Iraq and Afghanistan wars with post-traumatic stress disorder.

“This is a tragic piece of news, one that we were really hoping we wouldn’t have to come before the public to give,” Childs said.

Law enforcemnt officials have not determined a motive and declined to identify the victims and the gunman, saying family members still needed to be notified.

California state lawmaker Bill Dodd, who represents the area, gunman had been dismissed from a veteran’s program at the facility this week.

The incident comes as the the National Rifle Association (NRA) has become the focus of a growing movement by activists demanding enactment of tougher gun control laws in the wake of last month’s mass shooting at a Florida high school that killed 17 people and injured 14 others.

The United States loses around 33,000 people to gun violence every year.