Gunman kills 3 at Nevada IHOP, including guardsmen

By SANDRA CHEREB - Associated Press | AP – 2 hrs 52 mins ago

• Officials investigate the scene of a shooting in an IHOP restaurant in Carson City, …
• 
  Eduardo Sencion, 32, seen in a photo provided by the Carson City Sheriff's Office, …

CARSON CITY, Nev. (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.

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.

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.

Witnesses and authorities described a frantic scene in the bustling business district, in which the shooter pulled into the large complex of retail stores and shops just before 9 a.m. in a blue minivan with a yellow "Support Our Troops" sticker on the back. He got out and immediately shot a woman near a motorcycle, a witness said.

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 when 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."

The gunman went all the way to the back of the restaurant to the back area and opened fire, Carson City Sheriff Kenny Furlong said.

When he left the restaurant, he stood in the parking lot and shot into the nearby businesses, shattering the windows of a barbecue restaurant and an H&R Block and a casino across the street.

Officers arrived minutes later and found the suspect and the person who was by the motorcycle wounded and lying in the parking lot. The names of the victims, including two male Guard members who were killed, were not immediately released.

Sencion left two more guns in the van — a rifle and a pistol, authorities said.

As the attack unfolded, Nevada officials 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."

Reno-based FBI special agent Michael West said there was no indication of any terrorist plot.

As police interviewed dozens of witnesses after the shooting 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.

Sencion was born in Mexico and had a valid U.S. passport. In interviews with investigators after the shooting, his family raised concerns about his mental health, Furlong said. Sencion worked at his family's business in South Lake Tahoe and had no criminal history. The minivan he drove to the shooting was registered to his brother.

The shooting shocked some who knew him, including Joe Laub, his lawyer in a bankruptcy filing in January 2009, who called it 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."

In the bankruptcy filing, Sencion listed more than $42,000 in outstanding debts for a car, several credit cards and some medical expenses. At the time, Sencion reported having $200 spread over three bank accounts and $923 in disability income, mostly from Social Security.

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. Two of the three wounded guard members were women. Authorities provided few details about the five other injured people, except to say one was a woman who was found near a motorcycle. Three of those wounded have minor wounds; the others were shot in critical areas of the body, Furlong said.

"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."

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. Conway said she did not believe any of the Guard members at the restaurant were armed.

"Our guards would have no reason to be carrying military weapons here today," Conway said. "We have no reason to believe that any of them were armed with personal weapons."

Furlong says they're analyzing the shooter's 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've lived in Carson City since 1961 and I've never seen anything like this," said Fran Hunter, who works at the Sierra Le Bone pet shop just north of the IHOP. "This is the kind of thing that happens in New York City or L.A., not here."

___

Associated Press writers Michelle Rindels, Ken Ritter and Oskar Garcia in Las Vegas; Martin Griffith in Reno; and Scott Sonner in Carson City contributed to this report.

I thought this statement full of chutzpuh:

"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."

And here is the kicker:

"Sencion was born in Mexico and had a valid U.S. passport"  

which means he probably DOESN'T have one.  Funny how the media and authorities are working hard to exonerate this guy in the minds of those who are following the story.  There is bias IN ALL THINGS and the irony is ALL people bend over backwards to prove that they DON'T have bias.  This guy serves the special interests of special people and is therefore an asset.  Most assets of these special people are dangerous to live around but are sold to the white public as "joys of diversity."  But, whites are HUGE backbiters and commit treason against their own people as though it was their religion so expect more of the same.  The reason the powers that be get away with all of this is BECAUSE OF WHITE COMPLICITY!!!  NOT THE JEW BUT WHITE WHO CAN'T HELP BUT HUMILIATE THOSE OF THEIR OWN RACE!

The reason it's not being considered a terrorist attack is because the government doesn't want mexicans to be looked at in a negative light.  Mexicans are a strong element regarding political control and serve as the best weapon in changing the USA's demographic from white to non-white.  If a white guy had done this there would be no quarter.  It would be considered terrorism because white terrorism is the new model the State is selling the public.  So, the details of a story will differ based on the race of the perpetrator, it's as simple as that.  Multiple murders such as those found in this story are considered an "aberration of character"  when a mestizo commits it but "symptomatic" when it's a white perpetrator.  

While white people are busy tripping over themselves to prove to the world that racial differences don't exist the government and news are using all sophistry at their disposal to change reality to meet their expectations.  If the dumb white goy are corrupt enough to believe it then why SHOULDN'T it be sold to them?  It is a christian cultist idea to take all sin from the world and make people believe the sin is then taken from their soul.  Your race should be strong enough to resist it's own manipulation and genocide.  Why am I focused on race and not american normalcy?  Because a nation is the product of race and yes, that means a multicultural America can only exist in a fantasy (or more like a nightmare).  Once multiculturalism happens you've got yourself a corporation and not a nation anymore...TOD