Nev. gunman’s motives remain unclear

All of them were National Guard members, and they were sitting at a table at a Nevada IHOP when a gunman burst in and began shooting on Tuesday morning. All three died in the attack, a death toll that matched the total number of Nevada guardsmen killed in Iraq and Afghanistan over a decade. A patron was also killed.

“This is unquestionably the most devastating attack in Carson City’s history,’’ Sheriff Kenny Furlong said yesterday.

Exactly what set off gunman Eduardo Sencion, 32 - and whether the grocery store employee had some kind of grudge against the military - remained unclear. He killed himself after the shooting.

Family members told police that Sencion was mentally troubled but that he did not have a criminal history.

South Lake Tahoe police said that the department took Sencion into protective health custody during a mental health commitment in April 2000 and that he fought with officers. He was not charged.

Kathy Chaney, of Dayton, Nev., was inside the IHOP, just feet away from the National Guard members. Chaney said the gunfire were “the biggest and loudest pops that I’ve ever heard in my whole life.’’