Shootings kill 3 at Nevada County office, restaurant

Thursday, Jan. 11, 2001 | 9:04 a.m.

The peaceful resolution was a marked contrast to the events that stunned this gold-rush country town.

Sheriffs said Scott Harlan Thorpe fatally shot three people and wounded two others at a county office and a restaurant where he believed the cooks were poisoning him.

Officers arrested Thorpe at his Smartsville house some 15 miles from the shootings after a daylong manhunt through a dreary downpour. He was turned in by his brother, Kent Thorpe, a police officer in Sacramento, Nevada County Sheriff Keith Royal said.

A gunman went into the county social services building in Nevada City at about 11:30 a.m. and shot three people at the outpatient mental health clinic with a handgun. Two of the victims died: 19-year-old Laura Wilcox, who worked there, and visiting 68-year-old caregiver Pearlie Mae Feldman.

Thorpe entered the lobby and shot the three victims through a glass partition separating the lobby from the office, Royal said. A fourth person broke her leg jumping from a window to escape, he said.

About 10 minutes later, Thorpe went into a Lyon's restaurant less than two miles away near Grass Valley, fatally shooting restaurant manager Mike Markle, 24, and wounding a cook, Royal said.

Investigators said they would take a statement from Thorpe Wednesday night. They were also attempting to get a search warrant for his house.

Royal said Thorpe's brother told them the gunman was unhappy with the mental-health care he received at the county clinic, and was convinced the restaurant was poisoning him.

"It is a dark day for our county," county board Chairwoman Elizabeth Martin told reporters. "I'm here to express our deep grief and horror at this loss to our community and offer our condolences to the families."

People were barred from entering or leaving county buildings and area schools as officers searched for Thorpe Wednesday afternoon.

Yellow police tape surrounded the restaurant. Several nearby fast-food restaurants closed after the shootings.

Ted Christensen, a manager at the Video Library, a video rental store across the street from Lyon's, said he had just arrived at work when he saw several people running out of the restaurant, ducking behind cars in the parking lot and running across the street to hide behind shops.

"I've lived in this town for 18 years and I've never heard of anyone going on this kind of shooting spree," said Christensen, who hid behind his car after learning shots had been fired.

Nevada County is rural county of about 90,000 in the Sierra Nevada foothills, about 50 miles north of Sacramento.

A friend of Markle's, Ted Langdell of Marysville, said he last saw him at the Yuba City Lyon's on Christmas.

"He was busy cooking, waiting tables and basically being a jack-of-all-trades so others could go home on Christmas," Langdell said.

Several Lyon's employees, including some who saw the shootings, gathered at a restaurant across the street Wednesday afternoon and watched the television news, shielded from reporters. Some did not want to leave until they received more information about what happened, said the Rev. Sandi Clifford, the Placer County chaplain.

Lyon's was bringing in counselors to talk to the employees, Clifford said. A Lyon's regional manager at the scene declined to comment.

The sheriff identified the woman wounded at the county building as Judith Edzards, 49. She was in critical condition at Sutter Roseville Medical Center.

The restaurant cook, Richard Senuty, 34, was in good condition at the Sierra Nevada Hospital in Grass Valley.

Three county workers and a restaurant employee were being treated at Sierra Nevada for other injuries, including Daisy Switzer, the county worker hurt jumping out of the county health building. The other three patients were treated for emotional trauma, Cooke said.

Employees at the social services building were placed on administrative leave and were not expected to return to work until Tuesday.

County board Chairwoman Martin said officials would discuss whether to add security at the building, which has no metal detectors, guards or surveillance system.

"We prefer not to do business behind bulletproof glass here in Nevada County," she said. "We resolve issues feistily but certainly not violently."