Carson City IHOP Shooting: Gunman named; four dead, eight wounded

Update 3:00 p.m.: There are now four people reported dead from the shooting this morning. Two victims were uniformed National Guardsmen. One of the dead is the shooter, who killed himself. The other deceased victim was a civilian female. Eight more persons were wounded, including three more National Guardsmen.

Shooter's name is Eduardo Sencion, of Carson City.

2 p.m. update

There is a press conference scheduled for 3 p.m.

A few minutes before 9 a.m., a lone gunman armed with automatic AK-47-type assault rifle drives up to the IHOP on South Carson Street, and begins shooting in the parking lot. Locals BBQ owner Ralph Swagler said he saw the man drive up, and then empty a clip of ammo outside the IHOP, then reloads and goes inside, where he fires more shots very rapidly and exits within a few seconds.

Swagler said the gunman then saw his son locking the door of their business and opened fire at them. He also allegedly fired shots at the H&R Block office next door. Sometime after, the gunman shot himself, and died later at the hospital.

Witnesses recount events

More photos of the scene

Transcript of morning press conference

Sheriff Kenny Furlong:

"At 8:58 this morning, Carson City Sheriff's Dispatch received a report of automatic gunfire at the ihop here, international house of pancakes. It was reported that five or six people had been shot at that time."

"The suspect that was identified by the original callers had already self-inflicted a wound and was lying in the parking lot. ...At this point in time I believe he is still breathing but is not anticipated to survive."

"There was also an original report that a second person was identified running from the area, that has been found not to be true."

"There were no shots fired by law enforcement agencies."

"Seven persons were transported from the scene to Renown and Carson. Two were established dead at the scene. There has been a third death during surgery."

"A total of about 11 agencies responded to this, including the department of public safety."

"I do want to reassure everyone, and this is the most important message - right now it appears as though there was one shooter, and that shooter has inflicted himself with a gunshot. There does not appear to be any safety concerns outside of this area, where we are currently standing."

Q: How many people total were shot, not including the gunman?
A: The current count right now is nine.
Q: Nine, and three are dead?
A: Three of them have been confirmed to me to be deceased at this time.

"Folks, there is one point that I need to make here. The deceased persons, at least two of the three appear to be military folks, and so we are working very closely with the Attorney General's office, the Department of Public Safety, the FBI, and the National Guard, to work this out. ...It is too early to have any concrete answers..."

Q: Do you know what kind of gun was used?
A: It was an automatic weapon.

Q: Was the shooter military?
A: We don't have any information to suggest that yet.

Q: Do you have an age on the shooter?
A: I don't want to give any information on the shooter at this point in time. What we believe to be the shooter may not be, we are trying to confirm that at this time.

Q: Counting the shooter is it ten shot?
A: Yes.

Q: Was he driving a blue minivan?
A: Yes.

Q: Where can the families go to find out information?
A: We have chaplain services and psychologists on-scene for any of the family members...we have made services available for all involved.

Q: Is there any indication that he knew someone in the iHop?
A: It's too early...to determine that.

Q: Kenny, you have to know who that vehicle is registered to. Is it registered local?
A: We do know who the vehicle is registered to, it is registered locally. Our indications are that we have no troubled past with the people who the vehicle is registered to...however, I have to re-emphasize and restate that we do not have a positive ID on the shooter yet.

Q: When's the last time you had a multiple shooting in Carson City?
A: That extends beyond my corporate knowledge...The last time we had more than one was about four years ago, it was a domestic violence....

Q: Two of the three dead were military?
A: At least two of the three are military.

Q: We also heard that someone on a motorcycle outside of the IHOP was shot.
A: Yes.

Q: He also shot out windows at the BBQ?
A: Yes, IHOP, H&R Block, Local's BBQ...

Q: Was the shooter an employee of IHOP?
A: We don't know.

Trooper Chuck Allen -

"I'll keep my comments short because this is Sheriff Furlong's jurisdiction..."

Folks, the Department of Public Safety, along with several other agencies, to include the FBI, our Investigations Division, and several other agencies, are here to assist the Sheriff with this process. We are scheduling another press conference at 3 o'clock this afternoon at this location to hopefully provide you with some of the answers to the questions that you're seeking this morning. We want to get the name, the age ...as quickly as possible, but our more important need is to know that you folks know that the community is safe. This was an isolated gunman, if you will, and he did take his own life - he shot himself. He has a self-inflicted gunshot wound.

Q: Were the military people shot - were they in uniform?
A: Yes they were.

Q: Were they National Guard?
A: They are.

Q: Were there other people that are military that are shot that aren't dead?
A: That hasn't been confirmed yet. The sheriff may never know a motive.

Q: Any chance that religion played a role in this?
A: Don't know, sir.

"I wanted to reassure you that the community is safe, that there are a number of agencies working diligently to get this resolved..."

Q: The three fatalities, were they all military?
A: I know of the two military fatalities.

Q: Was he wearing a red shirt and black shorts?
A: That I don't know.

Q: Kenny, do we know, are they all men that have died?
A: (Kenny furlong) They are not all men.

"The Sheriff did ask me to state one more thing - because the military members were part of this unfortunate, unplanned, tragic event this morning, this called for some extra security measures to be placed on state and military buildings here in northern Nevada, because as you know when you have people in uniform who are randomly targeted for whatever reason this may have been, it's a safety precaution that we take very seriously. Because you just don't know if this gentleman is working by himself or if there are others out there who are working in cahoots with him."

Q: He shot himself in the head?
A: Yes.