YOUNTVILLE, Calif. — At the largest veterans’ home in the country, a gunman is holding three hostages in a room inside. The sheriff says the gunman has exchanged fire with deputies, but no injuries were reported. The state-owned veterans’ home is in Yountville, in Napa Valley Wine Country.
Law enforcement officers are largely surrounding the hillside veterans’ home. Hillside Medevac helicopaters are standing by, and hostage negotiators have been trying to make contact with the gunman in the room he burst in Friday morning.
“He is armed with M4-style rifle,” came on the scanner, according to Broadcastify. “Fifteen to 30 shots fired against a deputy”
Shots rang out just after 10 a.m. Friday, with witnesses say a gunman walked into a party on the campus.
“We are approaching this as active shooter situation there have been shots fired exchanged with deputy,” said Napa County Sheriff John Robertson.
Police, SWAT teams, FBI and agents from the Department of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearm (ATF) swarmed the grounds — as the gunman, dressed in body armor and armed with assault rifle and tactical goggles took a clinical worker, psychiatrist and executive director hostage in building G.
“My heart was pounding,” said Nancy Nittka, a volunteer in a different building. “They told us to close our blinds, doors and windows.”
“Snipers have been given the green light,” came on the scanner via Broadcastify.
Sniper teams were reportedly given permission to shoot.
“We have him confined to one room, there are three different tact teams on site in the building keeping him in that location,” said California Highway Patrol assistant chief Chris Childs.
SWAT teams, using cameras, tried to look in the window where the gunman was holding the three hostages.
The hostages are Pathway House employees, Childs said. The Pathway Home is a privately run program on the veteran home’s grounds that treats veterans of the Iraq and Afghanistan wars with post-traumatic stress disorder.
The 850 veterans who live at the facility are still on lockdown.
Students were rehearsing a play at the home. They were close to the gunman but never in danger, according to officials. The kids are still under lockdown in another building.
