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If it hadn't been for an overbooked flight, Kelly Roome, 19, and her boyfriend-killer who served at Beale Air Force might both be alive.
Sometime in the last few days, Roome decided she needed a change, her father, Daniel Roome, told the Daily Journal of Johnson County, Ind.
She told boyfriend, Ian Sloan York, 21, she wanted to move back home to Indiana and return to school, and she asked him for a ride to the airport in Sacramento on Saturday afternoon to catch a flight back to Indiana.
Daniel Roome said York agreed. But after he'd dropped her off, she called York on her cell, according to the manager of the apartment complex where the couple had been living. The flight was overbooked, and she'd rescheduled for a flight on Sunday. Could he come back and pick her up from the airport?
York agreed again, and they came back to Marysville that evening, then went to a friend's place at Shelter Cove Apartments on Lincoln Road in Yuba City for a Fourth of July party. They got into an argument, she went back to their Marysville apartment and he followed, apparently killing her shortly thereafter.
Marysville apartment complex manager Wes Porter thought someone was setting off Illegal fireworks when he heard a bang while headed to apartment No. 4. He was walking to the unit to tell a man he knew was in the apartment to move his car from a parking spot designated for someone else.
The apartment door opened before Porter arrived. And parking spots suddenly became unimportant, as a man pointed a gun from within the apartment.
About a half-hour before Saturday became Sunday, the Mountain Woods apartment complex on the 2300 block of Cheim Boulevard in East Marysville went from, as Porter described it, a normally quiet place, to a scene of violence, rage and death.
When it was over, Roome, an Indiana native who'd been living in the apartment for less than a month, was mortally wounded.
A Beale Air Force airman, Matt Valmoja, was wounded.
York, 21, Roome's fiancé, Valmoja's friend, and police believe, the person who shot them both, was killed about 12 hours later, after twice trading gunfire with police officers more than a 100 miles away in Santa Clara.
“Have you ever had a dream where you were frozen, like something was happening and you couldn't run?” Porter, 27, asked Monday, in trying to describe the scene Saturday night. “I feel bad for Ian. I feel bad for both families.”
While the couple was at the party, according to Marysville police, they got into an argument when Roome put her arm around another man.
Police said York may have punched the unidentified man. Angry, Roome left the party without York, and went back to the Marysville apartment.
Porter said he and his wife had recently gotten back from a barbecue when they decided to wind down in the complex's hot tub at about 11 p.m. They saw York return to the apartment.
“He was really cold (unfriendly),” Natalie Porter said. “There was hardly anybody here.”
Wes Porter said he saw York drinking from a bottle of Crown Royal whiskey. He said he hadn't known York to be a heavy drinker; police said York had been drinking at the party.
About 20 minutes later, Valmoja arrived and parked in the spot that drew the Porters' attention. Others were also at the apartment, though it wasn't clear who they came with or when.
Porter said he was on his way to the apartment when he heard the bang and the door opened, and Valmoja ran out with a friend. York followed them out, carrying what police believe was a 9 mm Glock handgun.
A month earlier, those who knew York said he was flying as high as the aircraft he saw at Beale, where he was an airman first class and part of the Security Forces, a unit in the Air Force comparable to the military police.
Roome was the reason. They'd dated intermittently since he'd graduated from Greenwood High School, near Indianapolis, three years ago.
They'd gotten engaged this spring, and Roome, last fall's homecoming queen at Greenwood High, graduated and then moved to Marysville to be with him three weeks ago.
A fellow Security Forces member who was moving into the apartment complex said York, who was living in the unit next door with Valmoja, spoke of buying a house with Roome. She did not want to be identified, citing military protocol.
Wes Porter's wife, Natalie, 27, recalled how York agreed to take over full responsibility for the apartment rent so that Valmoja could move out and Roome, who wasn't working, could move in.
“It seemed like it was a great thing,” Porter said. “I never would've suspected there was a problem there.”
The Porters and the Security Forces member all said they'd emphasize that Mountain Woods was anything but turbulent or crime-ridden. Many of the tenants are stationed at Beale, as York had been since late 2007.
“I have their commanding officers' phone numbers,” Wes Porter said. “They're real respectful here.”
The couple didn't show visible signs of trouble, he said. But York was dealing with stress in other areas.
After the deaths, Porter said, family members in Indiana told him York was upset over a son he had back in Indiana. The boy's mother, a stripper, had recently started taking her son to her workplace, over York's objections.
And the Security Forces member said those in her unit are often deployed overseas, and often into hotspots such as Iraq and Afghanistan, though she wasn't sure whether York had been deployed there.
“I knew they were having problems,” she said of Roome and York, the latter of whom she'd known since they were both in U.S. Air Force technical school to become Security Forces members. “But of all people, I'd have bet on myself doing something like that before him.”
Beale spokesman Chuck Broadway, an airman first class, said the gun was not the one York was issued as a Security Forces member.
“Right now, we're just trying to get any more information that we can,” Broadway said Monday.
Porter said York briefly looked at him, then pointed the gun at Valmoja and fired. Valmoja cried out as if he was hit, but made it to his car, and drove off.
Police said Valmoja went to Rideout Memorial Hospital in Marysville, where he was treated for a gunshot wound to his leg and released Sunday. He could not be reached for comment Monday.
Porter said York got into his own vehicle and left, talking in a cell phone as he did so.
“This ends tonight,” Porter said he overheard York saying.
Inside the apartment, Roome was sprawled at the bottom of the stairs, with a gunshot wound to her chest. A physician's assistant who lives in the unit was summoned to help, and residents called an ambulance. Until the ambulance arrived, Porter said, he and the assistant performed CPR on Roome.
She never regained a pulse, Porter said. Roome, who her father said had hoped to become a dental assistant or medical technician, was pronounced dead at Rideout.
Police said York, driving his black Chrysler Crossfire, went back to the party he'd attended with Roome. He soon left, and the vehicle was found abandoned in rural Placer County early Sunday.
Marysville police got a tip that York might be headed for Santa Clara, where he had an acquaintance, said Lt. Phil Cooke, a spokesman for the Santa Clara Police Department.
It was still unclear Monday how York got from Placer County to Santa Clara, more than 110 miles to the southwest.
According to Cooke, an officer saw a man matching York's description walking along a street in Santa Clara at about 11:30 a.m. Sunday.
When the officer approached the man, he opened fire and fled. The officer wasn't injured, Cooke said.
The man believed to be York jumped a fence and went into a wooded area called Saratoga Creek that ran parallel to a street. Officers from Santa Clara's SWAT unit, regular force and nearby agencies surrounded the area.
After two requests for York to surrender, the officers confronted him, and he opened fire again, Cooke said.
The officers, unharmed, returned fire and killed him. It was 12:30 p.m. Sunday, 13 hours after the first call in Marysville.
The Porters said they didn't sleep much, if at all, Saturday night. Sunday was little better.
Monday, residents found notices posted on their doors that described what happened. Porter said he's considering having a barbecue for residents to share their thoughts and grieve.
“Everybody's heartbroken here,” he said. “I want people to know that's not normal here.”
Daniel Roome said what happened is harder to take because his daughter was murdered.
“She was absolutely happy. She loved him so much,” he said.
“You never expect to bury your child.”
Contact Appeal-Democrat reporter Ben van der Meer at 749-4709 or bvandermeer@appealdemocrat.com. The Daily Journal of Johnson County, Ind., contributed to this report.
Sometime in the last few days, Roome decided she needed a change, her father, Daniel Roome, told the Daily Journal of Johnson County, Ind.
She told boyfriend, Ian Sloan York, 21, she wanted to move back home to Indiana and return to school, and she asked him for a ride to the airport in Sacramento on Saturday afternoon to catch a flight back to Indiana.
Daniel Roome said York agreed. But after he'd dropped her off, she called York on her cell, according to the manager of the apartment complex where the couple had been living. The flight was overbooked, and she'd rescheduled for a flight on Sunday. Could he come back and pick her up from the airport?
York agreed again, and they came back to Marysville that evening, then went to a friend's place at Shelter Cove Apartments on Lincoln Road in Yuba City for a Fourth of July party. They got into an argument, she went back to their Marysville apartment and he followed, apparently killing her shortly thereafter.
Marysville apartment complex manager Wes Porter thought someone was setting off Illegal fireworks when he heard a bang while headed to apartment No. 4. He was walking to the unit to tell a man he knew was in the apartment to move his car from a parking spot designated for someone else.
The apartment door opened before Porter arrived. And parking spots suddenly became unimportant, as a man pointed a gun from within the apartment.
About a half-hour before Saturday became Sunday, the Mountain Woods apartment complex on the 2300 block of Cheim Boulevard in East Marysville went from, as Porter described it, a normally quiet place, to a scene of violence, rage and death.
When it was over, Roome, an Indiana native who'd been living in the apartment for less than a month, was mortally wounded.
A Beale Air Force airman, Matt Valmoja, was wounded.
York, 21, Roome's fiancé, Valmoja's friend, and police believe, the person who shot them both, was killed about 12 hours later, after twice trading gunfire with police officers more than a 100 miles away in Santa Clara.
“Have you ever had a dream where you were frozen, like something was happening and you couldn't run?” Porter, 27, asked Monday, in trying to describe the scene Saturday night. “I feel bad for Ian. I feel bad for both families.”
While the couple was at the party, according to Marysville police, they got into an argument when Roome put her arm around another man.
Police said York may have punched the unidentified man. Angry, Roome left the party without York, and went back to the Marysville apartment.
Porter said he and his wife had recently gotten back from a barbecue when they decided to wind down in the complex's hot tub at about 11 p.m. They saw York return to the apartment.
“He was really cold (unfriendly),” Natalie Porter said. “There was hardly anybody here.”
Wes Porter said he saw York drinking from a bottle of Crown Royal whiskey. He said he hadn't known York to be a heavy drinker; police said York had been drinking at the party.
About 20 minutes later, Valmoja arrived and parked in the spot that drew the Porters' attention. Others were also at the apartment, though it wasn't clear who they came with or when.
Porter said he was on his way to the apartment when he heard the bang and the door opened, and Valmoja ran out with a friend. York followed them out, carrying what police believe was a 9 mm Glock handgun.
A month earlier, those who knew York said he was flying as high as the aircraft he saw at Beale, where he was an airman first class and part of the Security Forces, a unit in the Air Force comparable to the military police.
Roome was the reason. They'd dated intermittently since he'd graduated from Greenwood High School, near Indianapolis, three years ago.
They'd gotten engaged this spring, and Roome, last fall's homecoming queen at Greenwood High, graduated and then moved to Marysville to be with him three weeks ago.
A fellow Security Forces member who was moving into the apartment complex said York, who was living in the unit next door with Valmoja, spoke of buying a house with Roome. She did not want to be identified, citing military protocol.
Wes Porter's wife, Natalie, 27, recalled how York agreed to take over full responsibility for the apartment rent so that Valmoja could move out and Roome, who wasn't working, could move in.
“It seemed like it was a great thing,” Porter said. “I never would've suspected there was a problem there.”
The Porters and the Security Forces member all said they'd emphasize that Mountain Woods was anything but turbulent or crime-ridden. Many of the tenants are stationed at Beale, as York had been since late 2007.
“I have their commanding officers' phone numbers,” Wes Porter said. “They're real respectful here.”
The couple didn't show visible signs of trouble, he said. But York was dealing with stress in other areas.
After the deaths, Porter said, family members in Indiana told him York was upset over a son he had back in Indiana. The boy's mother, a stripper, had recently started taking her son to her workplace, over York's objections.
And the Security Forces member said those in her unit are often deployed overseas, and often into hotspots such as Iraq and Afghanistan, though she wasn't sure whether York had been deployed there.
“I knew they were having problems,” she said of Roome and York, the latter of whom she'd known since they were both in U.S. Air Force technical school to become Security Forces members. “But of all people, I'd have bet on myself doing something like that before him.”
Beale spokesman Chuck Broadway, an airman first class, said the gun was not the one York was issued as a Security Forces member.
“Right now, we're just trying to get any more information that we can,” Broadway said Monday.
Porter said York briefly looked at him, then pointed the gun at Valmoja and fired. Valmoja cried out as if he was hit, but made it to his car, and drove off.
Police said Valmoja went to Rideout Memorial Hospital in Marysville, where he was treated for a gunshot wound to his leg and released Sunday. He could not be reached for comment Monday.
Porter said York got into his own vehicle and left, talking in a cell phone as he did so.
“This ends tonight,” Porter said he overheard York saying.
Inside the apartment, Roome was sprawled at the bottom of the stairs, with a gunshot wound to her chest. A physician's assistant who lives in the unit was summoned to help, and residents called an ambulance. Until the ambulance arrived, Porter said, he and the assistant performed CPR on Roome.
She never regained a pulse, Porter said. Roome, who her father said had hoped to become a dental assistant or medical technician, was pronounced dead at Rideout.
Police said York, driving his black Chrysler Crossfire, went back to the party he'd attended with Roome. He soon left, and the vehicle was found abandoned in rural Placer County early Sunday.
Marysville police got a tip that York might be headed for Santa Clara, where he had an acquaintance, said Lt. Phil Cooke, a spokesman for the Santa Clara Police Department.
It was still unclear Monday how York got from Placer County to Santa Clara, more than 110 miles to the southwest.
According to Cooke, an officer saw a man matching York's description walking along a street in Santa Clara at about 11:30 a.m. Sunday.
When the officer approached the man, he opened fire and fled. The officer wasn't injured, Cooke said.
The man believed to be York jumped a fence and went into a wooded area called Saratoga Creek that ran parallel to a street. Officers from Santa Clara's SWAT unit, regular force and nearby agencies surrounded the area.
After two requests for York to surrender, the officers confronted him, and he opened fire again, Cooke said.
The officers, unharmed, returned fire and killed him. It was 12:30 p.m. Sunday, 13 hours after the first call in Marysville.
The Porters said they didn't sleep much, if at all, Saturday night. Sunday was little better.
Monday, residents found notices posted on their doors that described what happened. Porter said he's considering having a barbecue for residents to share their thoughts and grieve.
“Everybody's heartbroken here,” he said. “I want people to know that's not normal here.”
Daniel Roome said what happened is harder to take because his daughter was murdered.
“She was absolutely happy. She loved him so much,” he said.
“You never expect to bury your child.”
Contact Appeal-Democrat reporter Ben van der Meer at 749-4709 or bvandermeer@appealdemocrat.com. The Daily Journal of Johnson County, Ind., contributed to this report.
