Five Nevada national guard troops sitting together at the back of an International House of Pancakes restaurant were shot – three of them fatally – and a woman was also killed. The gunman, 32-year-old Eduardo Sencion of Carson City, died at a hospital.
The shooter's motive was unclear. 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 which the gunman pulled into the large complex of retail stores and shops just before 9am local time 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.
Witness Ralph Swagler said he grabbed his own weapon, but it was too late to stop Sencion, who charged into the restaurant through the front doors.
"I wish I had shot at him when he was going in the IHOP," said Swagler. "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 International House of Pancakes restaurant to the back area and opened fire, Carson City sheriff Kenny Furlong said.
When Sencion left the restaurant, he stood in the parking area and shot into the nearby businesses, shattering several windows across the street.
Police arrived minutes later and found Sencion and the person who was by the motorcycle wounded and lying in the parking lot. The names of the victims, including the three troops 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 shut 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."
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