IHOP tragedy's continued impact across two states

By Heather Gould
IHOP shooting victim, part-time Tahoe resident Wally Gunderson, continues to recover after being shot in the leg during a rampage by a gunman at the Carson City restaurant on Sept. 6. Gunderson, 67, was injured after 32-year-old Eduardo Sencion entered the Carson City restaurant and began firing, then turned the gun on himself.
Gunderson’s wife, Florence Donovon-Gunderson, 67, was killed in the attack along with three National Guard personnel. “I know people die everyday in car accidents, from heart attacks and cancer, but people were just a little stunned,” said family friend Carol Sare. “This happens in Chicago, New York, Los Angeles, but not little ol’ Carson City.”

Gunderson has returned to his other home in San Diego to be near family, according to Sare. Gunderson seems to be doing as well as can be expected under the circumstances, she said.
Gunderson’s family did not feel ready to talk publicly about the incident. Donovon-Gunderson’s children and grandchildren are having to cope with this tragic and unexpected turn of events, said Sare, which will probably seep into other aspects of their lives. “The ripple effect just keeps going.”
Two services were held for Donovon-Gunderson in Tahoe — a public service at Hope Lutheran Church and a private service at the Episcopal Chapel at Fallen Leaf Lake where the couple was married. A third service was held in San Diego. “She had a lot of friends. It was lovely,” said Sare, “people had such nice things to say.”
Also killed in the attack was National Guardsman Miranda McElhiney, 31. She, too, had ties to Tahoe. She was born at Barton and attended school here through the sixth grade before moving to Reno, said family friend Kenny Curtzwiler. “She loved the military,” said Curtzwiler who escorted her body to Fernley along with 400 motorcyclists, a bevy of police and several helicopters. When McElhiney’s 16-year-old daughter, Lily, was presented with the U.S. flag by the National Guard’s Sgt. Major, she saluted, reminding Curtzwiler of John F. Kennedy, Jr. saluting his father’s hearse as it passed by. “It was amazing, amazing. It just leveled everybody.”
Curtzwiler worked with McElhiney’s mother at the Sahara in the late 1970s.
Curtzwiler said McElhiney’s name will be engraved on a monument to be erected at the corner of Highway 50 and Wildwood honoring four local young people whose lives were taken too soon.
Though a resident of Carson City, Sencion worked at and was part owner of Mi Pueblo Market on Pioneer Trail near Stateline. Personnel at the store declined to comment on the shooting. Taped to the door was a hand-lettered sign which read: “In Our Prayers always Keep Love in Your Heart. Prayers with the Families in my thoughts.” Several people had signed their names. A second homemade card read “We will Miss you Eduardo” and was signed by a family. Taped above the card was a picture of two children and a woman.
The Carson City Sheriff’s Department received the ATF report on the gun used in the incident. It was a MAK 90, a Chinese version of a Russian AK47 semi-automatic, and had been professionally modified to be fully automatic. Where and how Sencion obtained the gun has not been determined. Speculation about a motive has ranged from some sort of anger at the U.S. or the military, since the National Guardsmen were killed and perhaps targeted, to some sort of mental illness suffered by Sencion, who may have been schizophrenic.