Authorities in Northern California have tried and failed for the last four hours to make contact with a gunman who has taken three hostages at the nation's largest veterans care facility, officials said.
At about 10:20 a.m., authorities responded to reports of shots fired at the state-run Yountville Veterans Home, where a man with a rifle had walked into the Pathway Home building and taken three employees hostage, said Chris Childs, assistant chief for the California Highway Patrol's Golden Gate Division.
The first Napa County sheriff's deputy to arrive exchanged gunfire with the man.
"There were many bullets fired," Napa County Sheriff John Robertson said.
The deputy was not injured. The condition of the hostages was not immediately known.
Authorities know who the man is and have tried reaching him on his cellphone to no avail, Childs said. Three hostage negotiators are at the scene.
According to scanner traffic, dispatchers told responding sheriff's deputies that the man was wearing all black and was a former resident at the 600-acre facility. They reported he was possibly wearing body armor.
Deputies were told the gunman served in Afghanistan and was holed up with the hostages on the second floor of a building where a nonprofit serves veterans of the Iraq and Afghanistan wars.
"He's in Madison Hall, Building G, the Pathway House," the dispatcher told deputies. "Units be advised he does have a stash of bullets around his neck."
The facility's Master Plan describes the Pathway Home program this way:
"The Pathway Home is an independent nonprofit organization offering a men's residential recovery program dedicated to helping veterans of the Iraq and Afghanistan wars suffering with post-traumatic stress disorder or traumatic brain injury. The program is specifically focused on assisting soldiers who have returned from Operation Iraqi Freedom (OIF), Operation Enduring Freedom (OEF), and other Gulf War theaters. The program was started in 2008 on the grounds of Yountville's Veterans Home and is located in the Madison Hall. Since opening the program the staff of 18 has treated almost 200 non-senior veterans averaging 40 residents at any one time. It operates solely on private donations and grants."
The three hostages are Pathway employees, Childs said. The gunman freed everyone else in the room. The gunman had been recently treated at the facility, dispatchers told deputies.
Soon after the man arrived, the campus was quickly put on lockdown. All rooms, aside from the one occupied by the gunman, have since been evacuated, Napa County Sheriff's Lt. Jon Crawford said. About 840 veterans live on the grounds, a facility spokesman said.
Napa County fire officials said the department has sent multiple ambulances to the scene but have not entered the premises.
The facility is just north of Napa, a destination for wine and tourism.
