5 die at Nevada IHOP, including gunman with AK47 (VIDEO)

GlobalPost

A gunman wielding an AK47 opened fire at an IHOP restaurant packed with uniformed National Guard members on Tuesday in Carson City, Nev., killing four people and wounding eight.

Five Nevada National Guard troops sitting together at the back of the IHOP restaurant were shot — two of them fatally. Carson City Sheriff Kenny Furlong said the third National Guard member, a woman, died at an area hospital, the Associated Press reported. A civilian woman in the restaurant was also among the dead.

The shooter, identified as 32-year-old Eduardo Sencion of Carson City, shot himself in the head and died at a hospital, the LA Times reports.

While Sencion's motives were unclear, Carson City sheriff, the New York Times quoted Furlong as saying that Sencion sought out the National Guard members once inside the IHOP restaurant, at around 9 a.m.

Five of the 11 people shot were in uniform, and one of the wounded civilians was caught in the line of fire between Mr. Sencion and the Guardsmen.

His family members, meantime, reportedly said he had mental health issues.

Sencion had no criminal history and was not a member of the military, Furlong reportedly said. He did file for bankruptcy in 2009, when living in the nearby casino town of Stateline.

The AP quotes Ralph Swagler, the owner of a nearby barbecue restaurant,  as saying that he saw the gunman pull up outside the restaurant, where he first shot a man on a motorcycle and then headed inside.

"I wish I had shot at him, but he was going in the IHOP,” Mr. Swagler said. “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.”

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