3 Women Killed By Former Patient At California Veterans Home
(CBSNEWS/AP) - Details are emerging about the three women who were killed by a patient who had been kicked out of their Northern California treatment program. They were identified as The Pathway Home Executive Director Christine Loeber, 48; Clinical Director Jennifer Golick, 42; and Jennifer Gonzales, 29, a clinical psychologist with the San Francisco Department of Veterans Affairs Healthcare System.
A daylong siege at The Pathway Home ended Friday evening with the discovery of four bodies, including the gunman. He was identified as Albert Wong, 36, a former Army rifleman who served a year in Afghanistan in 2011-2012.
Golick's father-in-law, Bob Golick, said in an interview that she had recently expelled Wong from the program.
Golick was the top psychologist at the nonprofit home, which treats combat veterans of Iraq and Afghanistan.
She called her husband, Mark, around 10:30 a.m. to say that she had been taken hostage, Bob Golick said.
Mark didn't hear from her again, Malick said.
Loeber graduated from the University of New Hampshire and went into sales, then decided social work was her calling. She got her master's degree from Boston College in clinical social work and took a job with the Veterans Administration in Boston and then moved to the VA in Santa Rosa, California. She became executive director at Pathway 18 months ago.
Sandra Woodford, an Army veteran who lives at the veterans homes and works at the crafts center just across the street from Pathway, said Loeber came in occasionally to make sure the younger vets from Pathway would be treated warmly if they came to the crafts building to work on projects.
"She was delightful, intelligent, outgoing, charming," Woodford said Saturday morning as she stared across the veterans center grounds, where Pathway Home was still surrounded by police tape. "Very dedicated to the veterans."
Her friend Tom Turner said Loeber, who was divorced, loved her work and was proud of it. Were she still alive, she'd be helping others understand and deal with the tragedy, Turner said.
"She'd have a better perspective than I would," he said. "And she wouldn't be as angry I am."
According to her bio on PsychArmor, Gonzales received her Doctor of Psychology degree from Palo Alto University in 2003. She later completed a postdoctoral fellowship "where she focused on working with veterans with PTSD, caregivers, and couples.".
