LA man, upset over being fired, kills wife, 5 kids, himself
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- ALT - Mie Prefecture - Yokkaichi City - June start
- NPO法人グローバル教育推進機構（GLAD), Mie
- Salary: ¥230,000 / Month For a full working month. Some months differ.
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32 Comments
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0
adaydream
It's pitiful.
I can not believe this act of merciless killing.
I can not believe the depth of this guy's depression that he would kill them all because of jobs lost. So sad. < :-)
0
SuperLib
The guy did this because of mental problems, not because of his job.
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buddha4brains
Nice boss to fire two wage earners from the same family knowing they had 5 kids to support. And then to suggest the guy to shoot himself.
0
Badsey
Often it seems hospitals are the most inhospitable places + the LA mentality. = no wonder they were dumping patients in the street only a few years ago.
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Triumvere
Yes, Mr. Bread-Winner-Man, your family could not possibly survive without your manly bread-winning. Far better to shoot them all in the head than say, rely on unmanly handouts from relatives or government programs.
0
saborichan
It certainly doesn't seem like he went looking for work. I suppose with 5 kids, money was already tight. What's a medical technician do, anyway ? It sounds like reasonably well paid work.
I'm going to stir the pot and blame his religious leanings.
0
pointofview
Very sad. But in the end if they didn
t have the money to pay the bills the government programs or creditors wouldnt have given a squat about this familys situation. Children or not. Thats a fact! If the creditors have their cash and you are on the street they dont lose sleep. You are not their friend. There wouldnt be millions of foreclosures if this wasnt the case...I dont agree with what he did but he might have lost "all hope" and when that happens people do strange things. I hope this doesnt become a trend. Many people are on the edge right now and are giving up. Wheres the empathy in this "COOLING" world.0
neverknow2
What is a medical technician? Never heard of it before.
0
SezWho2
neverknow2,
That's a pretty easy google search, if that's a sincere question. I'd give you a link but yesterday a mod said that this was not the place to give links to "other publications". Any way, a med tech operates medical equipment like dialysis machines, runs tests like cardiograms and so on.
0
SezWho2
I think it's difficult to say why he shot himself. The loss of the job seems to have been the trigger for the action, but I think it is correct to say that the trigger is not necessarily the cause. "Mental problems", however, would seem to cover a multitude of sins--anything from schizophrenia to despair.
I can't imagine a mentally healthy person doing away with his 5 children. But I can imagine a mentally healthy person being emotionally overcome and blinded by a profound sense of hopelessness. I can imagine the confluence of a burdensome mortgage, loss of job, insolent treatment and dismal prospects and the stress that could create. I can also imagine that feeling being exacerbated by a corresponding feeling on the part of his spouse.
The article indicates that the police are treating the husband as the suspect (and who are they going to prosecute?) despite his fax to the TV station indicating that the idea was his wife's. I suppose they have good reason to doubt the wife's involvement but it doesn't say here what that is. What I mostly see here is that a gun provides immediate and unchecked power to react and this is seven more people whose gun did not protect them.
0
likeitis
I would say that guy has earned a special place in Hell. Its too bad he cannot be charged with some sort of culpability for this.
The heartless SOB is probably laughing about it over a beer right now. May Karma catch up to him.
0
likeitis
Well, I think it would be hard to prove now that she is dead, so they just are not bothering to try.
Anyway, ever heard of "divide and conquer". Don't let it happen. Post your links.
0
GJDailleult
Good advice, but it seems that this case is actually about some kind of problem at work and (probable) mental illness. Another report said that he pulled his kids out of school recently claiming they were moving to Kansas, which sounds to me like something a mentally ill guy would do. The tough economic times only matter if his mortgage was part of the reason for him cracking up. He sure doesn't seem to have gone job-hunting before deciding he couldn't go on, and I would think "medical technician" would actually be a pretty good field to be in in bad economic times.
0
IcingDeath
My, this is the first bad thing I have heard all day. 5 little ones gone just like that. I am sure they had no idea it was coming or why.
0
IcingDeath
The boss of this guy should be brought up on some charges. Even if he meant it as some sort of morbid joke, he should still be taught a lesson. Where is the Punisher when you need him.
0
shiuu
Actually, the "kill-my-kids-and-then-myself" approach to problem solving is not so unusual in Japan.
0
Betzee
That's because rendering your children orphans is a cultural taboo. But for Americans, most people would say, "If you want to take your own life, well that's your right. But why kill your kids too?" If they didn't have family who would take them in, the county would have put them in foster care.
According to the LA Times, the father had pulled the school-age kids out of school several weeks ago, informing the principal they were moving to Kansas. Since there was no indication they planned such a move, clearly things started unraveling a while ago.
0
Tatanka
This news report (and the US reports) do not tell the whole story. A large corporation like Kaiser Permanente has a long evaluation/review procedure for all personnel separations. If they were just fired, they were involved in some sort of illegal/unlawful activity. In most US firms it would take at least a year to fire someone due to poor performance reviews and being a minority, they would usually throw money at them to leave in order to avoid any hint of discrimination. Unfortunately, we will never know the circumstances of their dismissal in this case.
0
dennis0bauer
they should imprint on all those loonies first to shoot themselves then their family.
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Triumvere
I wouldn't be so quick to crucify the boss; if he truely did tell him to "blow his brains out", well then, special place in hell and all that. But right now your only source for that is the word of a man who, when told his job was in jeopardy, thought not "oh God, I hope I can get a new job" but "oh well, time to kill my family."
0
SezWho2
Triumvere,
Actually, I don't think you know what he thought.
0
smithinjapan
This is an extremely sad story, and it seems with the Santa story last month we're seeing a monthly slaughter report come out of the US. I wish these people would seek help, I really do. If they are insistant on offing themselves, which is very sad, I wish they would do just that; THEMSELVES! Not off the family on the way. What the hell did these kids (and wife) do to deserve this??
While the economy is to blame for a lot of negative sentiment going around, NO ONE is to blame for this man's actions but this man himself. YOU affect your environment, not the other way around. And anyone who thinks otherwise simply believes they are a puppet with no will of their own. Sure, you can let what's going on around you affect how you do things, but ultimately WHAT you do is completely under your control.
Economy sucks, getting fired = external. Killing family = internal.
The guy could have just as easily started looking for a new job and saying the economy allowed him to do something new. Of course, I know it's never that rosy, but my point is that you can't blame others for what this man chose to do himself.
I'll admit there are limits to the idea; namely that the innocents shot and killed had no control over their deaths, and that makes this man's actions all the more heinous.
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Triumvere
Shall I remove my tongue from my cheek for you, Sez?
The point is, right now the only thing to indicate the boss as a callous villian is the word of a clearly unstable man. Have you ever been fired, Sez? Layed off? Worked in a corperate setting? Managers usually go out of their way to avoid any sort of conflict or unpleasantness. That's not saying it's impossible, but don't you find the "blow your brains out" quote to be a bit fishy?
0
Badsey
Med Techs dish out the meds at hospitals. -usually they can also act as a CNA also. -a step below a nurse. Why pay a nurse (RN) when a CNA or Med Tech can do it.
-even the hospitals are cutting staff now.
0
meanmutha
I would of bought a massive insurance plan on myself and accidently stepped in front of car. Suicide is stupid but other methods for the family could of been done. Course I would never top myself but this is obvious a psychotic disorder for the nutjob. Guns do suck and so does the US welfare system. RIP.
0
SezWho2
Triumvere,
You can remove your tongue if you like. Since I didn't see you put it in, though, I'll likely not see you take it out. It's tough to convey irony in a short paragraph and if that was what you were going for, I think you missed.
I agree with you that we don't know what the boss actually said, unless by this time we do. As far as I know, all we have is the word of the man who shot himself and some number of people in his family. I also agree that he was unstable.
I just disagree that we know what he was thinking. When you say he did thus and so, you are describing actions for which we can gather evidence. When you say he thought thus and so, you are describing something for which no evidence is available.
You are correct that managers usually try to avoid unpleasantness. If you're a manager you never know when the guy you fire is going to come in and blow your brains out. But if you have ever worked in a large partnership such as a major accounting firm, a law firm or an investment bank, you must know that some managers are almost complete a-holes as managers. So, yes, the comment is a little fishy, but--without other knowledge--only a little.
0
SezWho2
Badsey,
I think the median income for a medical technician in California is about $65,000 per year. Unless, I'm making this up, I think I heard on CNN today that one of the top 10 "recession-proof" jobs was (how ironic) that of a medical technician. And again, unless I was dreaming, I think they indicated that annual income could be over $100,000. So apparently there are medical technicians and then again there are medical technicians.
0
Triumvere
No, we can't know what he was thinking, "patriarch losses job/money and decides to kill family" is an espablished pattern. It usually works something like this:
"I am the head of the household, and the provider for my family" to "My family relies on me to survive. It's my responsablity to take care of them." to "I've lost my job. And thus cannot provide for my family." to "I have failed as a father. I should commit suicide." to "My family will not survive without me." to "It's better that they die qucikly rather than suffer." to "It's my partental duty to kill my family, rather than let them suffer."
Armchair psychology and all that, but it is an established pattern, based on a narcissistic belief that the family revolves around you and cannot function without you; a sort of over-internalization of the traditional male patriarch role.
Oh, and no I wasn't going for irony (I seem to have missunderstood that phrase, if thats what it means.) Rather, the immage of the guy saying "well, time to kill the family" and whistling was not meant to be taken as a serious representation of this guy's state of mind. In other words, I didn't mean that litterally.
0
Triumvere
That fist line should have a "but" in it...
0
usaexpat
Desperate situations push people over the edge. I could never kill my wife and children but I can certainly understand the desperation that drives a person to do this. My sympathy is with the whole family, father included. May you all find peace.
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Badsey
you have surgical technicians, physician assistants etc and others who specialize. This guy could have worked directly under a Dr. doing something very specific or just general care like in a Nursing home.
-nothing is recession-proof right now.
The medical community really pushes the meds right now = this ties up Nurses. =Med Technician = specialize in dispensing meds or otherwise.
0
Molenir
I cannot. I cannot understand this at all. This kind of sick behavior, that justifies killing your children. To me, there is no justification for this.
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