Four dead in national guard restaurant shooting

A gunman opened fire on a table of uniformed National Guard members with an AK 47 assault rifle at an IHOP restaurant on Tuesday in an outburst of violence that killed four people and wounded eight others in Carson City, Nevada.
His motive was unclear but family members said he had mental issues. He had never been in the military and had no known affiliation with anyone inside the restaurant.
Five Nevada National Guard troops sitting together at the back of the restaurant were shot, two fatally. A civilian woman was also killed, and the gunman, 32-year-old Eduardo Sencion of Carson City, shot himself in the head and died later in hospital.
Witnesses and authorities described a frantic scene when the gunman pulled into the large complex of retail stores and shops in a blue minivan with a yellow 'Support Our Troops' sticker on the back.
He got out and immediately shot a motorcyclist, a witness said, and then ran into the restaurant.
The gunman went all the way to the back of the restaurant and opened fire, according to Carson City Sheriff Kenny Furlong.
Then he left, got back in his vehicle and drove around around in circles, shooting into the nearby businesses, including another restaurant and a casino.
Police arrived minutes later and found the suspect and the motorcyclist wounded and lying in a parking lot. The names of the victims, including two male Guard members 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 in case the violence was more widespread. They locked down 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.
Sencion was born in Mexico and had a valid US passport. He worked at the family business in South Lake Tahoe and had no criminal history. The minivan he drove to the shooting was registered to his brother.
The shooting shocked some who knew him, including Joe Laub, his lawyer in a bankruptcy filing in January 2009, who called it an 'aberration of his character'.
In the bankruptcy filing, Sencion listed more than 42,000 US dollars in outstanding debts for a car, several credit cards and some medical expenses.
At a Reno hospital, National Guardsmen gathered, waiting for word on those killed and hurt. A hospital spokesman said four shooting victims were being treated there, but wouldn't discuss their conditions or provide any other information.
The IHOP restaurant is about four miles (6.4 kilometres) from the Guard's headquarters complex.