YOUNTVILLE, Calif. – Three women and a man were found dead inside a California veterans home Friday evening, hours after a gunman took hostages and barricaded himself inside the facility, law enforcement officials said.
The identities of the victims was not immediately released, but officials said they believe the man was the suspect, according to KTXL.
A man exchanged gunfire with law enforcement officers before taking three people hostage inside the Veterans Home of California in Yountville, authorities said Friday afternoon.
Hostage negotiators spent hours trying to contact the gunman but had not been able to do so, California Highway Patrol spokesman Robert Nacke said at 9 p.m. ET.
The three hostages are employees of The Pathway Home, a counseling service for veterans who suffer post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), and not residents of the facility north of San Francisco, Napa County Sheriff John Robertson said at a news conference.
Larry Kamer told CNN that his wife, Pathway employee Devereaux Smith, said the gunman barged into a going-away party for Pathway employees leaving the job.
“They were having cake and toasting, apparently he just walked in with this rifle,” Kamer said. He said his wife and some other employees managed to escape, though he didn’t say how.
The man was holding the three people hostage in a room inside the building, Robertson said.
“We’ve tried numerous times and been trying since 10:30 this morning to contact him by his own cell phone and also the phones in the dorm area,” the sheriff said Friday afternoon.
He said authorities knew the gunman’s identify but did not release it. Robertson didn’t give a motive for the gunman’s actions.
“There was an exchange of gunfire, fired by the suspect and our deputy,” he said. “There were many bullets fired.”
Law enforcement officers responded to a “shots fired” report around 10:20 a.m. local time from the facility that houses about 1,000 veterans, Robertson said.
Robertson said about 70 students who were inside the Lincoln Theater, located on the grounds of the veterans home, have been evacuated and are safe.
“They were always safe,” the sheriff said. “They were put into a locked down position for their own safety.”
Chris Childs of the California Highway Patrol said a hotline will be set up for people to obtain information about relatives who live and work inside the home.
The FBI deployed a SWAT team to Yountville, spokesperson Katherine Zackel said. The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives said via Twitter it was also responding.
Founded in 1884, the facility houses about 1,000 aging vets and is the largest veterans home in the United States, according to the CalVet.
Men and women who served in World War II, the Korean War, the Vietnam War, Desert Storm and Operation Enduring Freedom/Operation Iraqi Freedom live there, CalVet said.
The veterans home is an important part of the Napa Valley Community, with the 1,200-seat Lincoln Theater, a golf course and a large library, CalVet said.
Residents were temporarily evacuated from the veterans home in October when fires raged through Napa County.
Yountville is a town of about 3,000 residents in the north San Francisco Bay area.
CNN contributed to this report.