Grill owner solemnly reopens business after Carson City shootings

CARSON CITY -- Ralph Swagler looked out a front window of his Locals BBQ & Grill as customers started trickling in for lunch Thursday.

The busted windows were replaced, the broken glass was all cleaned up, and the restaurant was open for business.

"We're open; we're trying to get past it," said a solemn Swagler.

Fifty hours earlier, he had watched a gunman shoot a woman in the parking lot and then enter a nearby IHOP restaurant, where he shot 10 more people and killed four. The gunman then sprayed Locals BBQ and other businesses with bullets.

But while Swagler's business is recovering from the deadliest shooting spree in Carson City history, the IHOP is not.

Workers have fenced off the restaurant and boarded up all of its windows, those shot out and those still intact.

City and business leaders fear the restaurant might not ever be reopened and instead follow other massacre sites and end up being razed.

Four people eating breakfast died there Tuesday when Eduardo Sencion, a 32-year-old Carson City man with a history of mental illness, shot patrons with an assault weapon that police said was a version of an AK47. Sencion then shot himself in the head and later became the fifth person to die.

Investigators still have not found a motive for the shooting but are continuing to looking into Sencion's mental health background and the source of the three weapons he brought with him Tuesday.

City Manager Larry Werner said Thursday that he spoke earlier with IHOP President Jean Birch, who told him no decision had been made as to what to do with the restaurant, although razing the building was an option.

"I don't know if it will be removed or not," Werner said. "They may remodel it or demolish it. I told her we would help her through the bureaucratic process if they make a decision to remodel."

But it might not be IHOP's decision on what to do with the building two miles south of the Capitol. The property and building are owned by MGP IX REIT LLC., based in San Francisco. The company's property manager did not return a phone call for comment.

Like Werner, Ronni Hannaman, executive director of the Carson City Chamber of Commerce, said IHOP officials still are deciding what to do next. But she noted that restaurants that have been sites of mass killings often are razed because of their notoriety and reluctance of customers to frequent them.

She pointed out that a McDonald's restaurant in San Ysidro, Calif., was torn down after James Huberty opened fire and killed 22 people, including himself, in 1984.

For Swagler, reopening his restaurant two days after the mass killing was a triumph. He looked tired, never smiled and categorically refused to talk about the ordeal.

Swagler found workers to replace his broken windows early Thursday and reopened his restaurant -- 30 yards north of the IHOP -- even before removing all the boards that had covered broken glass.

Werner said many people in Carson City consider Swagler a hero, and he expects the business will have more customers than normal. "I already have received two invitations to lunch at Locals BBQ," Werner said.

More than any person, Swagler stared directly into the eyes of Sencion.

He watched from his store as Sencion drove his minivan to the parking lot and shoot a woman near a motorcycle before the shooter went into the restaurant.

Swagler said he warned a woman who was walking toward IHOP that a man was firing a weapon, and she rushed into his store.

Sencion then left the IHOP, saw Swagler and began firing shots into the BBQ restaurant and surrounding businesses. Swagler rushed to a rear room and locked the door.

"I wished I had shot him," a stunned Swagler said Monday.

He had a weapon in his restaurant but forgot about it in the panic. Then again, he would have been no match for a gunman with an assault rifle.

On Thursday afternoon, Swagler was waiting for a new sign to be hung outside his store, a sign that tells everyone Locals BBQ is open for business.

"The town is going to know we are open," said Swagler as he walked away.

Contact Capital Bureau Chief Ed Vogel at evogel@reviewjournal.com or 775-687-3901.