The San Jose Mercury News reports that a 47 year old man named Jing Hua Wu, after being laid off from his job at a fabless digital radio semiconductor startup in Santa Clara called SiPort, came back to the office on Friday afternoon with a gun and killed three people. Sid Agrawal, the company’s CEO, and Brian Pugh, VP Operations, were killed along with one other as yet unidentified woman. Wu is still at large according to the latest reports.
This is obviously a very sad day in Silicon Valley, and our heart goes out to the families of the victims.
The event reminds me of a 1993 shooting at a law firm in San Francisco. I was a summer intern in the legal department of Bank of America, just down the street, and the incident affected the legal community for years afterward. There is no quick or easy way to get past something like this.
slow news day ?
Way to be inconsiderate.
I second this.
oh yeah, the murder of three people is barely news at all. jackass.
it might be good news for a newspaper……..but its not…for a tech site like this……….
Ban this f**ker.
you should have been ………………………
i bet it wouldnt be a slow news day then
James, It’s definitely a big deal for those families and for the people in Silicon Valley. Just imagine that you work at a company and you have to let someone go for reasons completely outside of your control; now you have the real thought that that person could harm you or the other people in your company. That’s a real problem.
@james – not only are you a #1 dweeb commenter, but you’re insensitive and uninformed.
Its interesting to see how many people respond to trolls like clockwork:
http://en.wikip...org/wiki/Troll_(Internet)
I think you meant to link to this:
http://en.wikip...org/wiki/Troll_(Internet)
Your a fuc-_ing asshole
omg y cant u morons understand that this isnt the type of posts that should appear on a site like this…………im here to read news abt startups and other web-related stuff…….not abt wat some maniac did………..i guess i shouldnt be surprised if news about someone dying of AIDS in Africa appears next on TC !!!
Actually, this is Tech-related. Maybe you don`t know how to read James. The guy worked at a tech startup. Its a crazy world for everybody in tech right now. Do you know how many people have gotten laid off? I hope they find him.
Insensitive jerk. Three people dead and he starts complaining that he chose to read the story. READ SOMETHING ELSE. People, real humans, family, brothers and sisters, fathers and mothers have died and you start to whine. You’re sickening mate.
In exchange for no severance pay, he gave them all severance packages.
There are extremely imbalanced people in all walks of society and in all cities around the world. This unfortunate scene appears to be repeated every few months somewhere in the nation
This man could have just as well have been working anyplace.
A few years ago, there seemed to be a trend among US Post Office employees
This never happens in Europe tough, or in Canada (well, at least not as often as we hear in the States)
why?
It happens also in Europe, as well as in any other parts of the world.
Lets be honest. Someone come can come up with stats, but this kind of tragedy happens much, much, much more often here in the states than in any part of the world. Reason? People don’t care about each other here enough. There’s very little sense of community. Its all about the money. You take someone’s job, you take their money. If there’s no support system, of course the craziness that is in people (all people) might come out blazing.
Bring on the socialism!
Hello, Captain Obvious here. It might not happen in Canada and Europe because guns aren’t nearly as prolific. We’ve got guns. Lots of them.
Easy access = easy decisions for the mentally imbalanced and the grotesquely stressed. Both of which are in abundance in America.
It happens everywhere. We just had a guy go crazy on a greyhound bus in Canada a few months ago so don’t make this an American thing when it is a human thing. It is someone not being able to handle life and breaking under the stress of it. These are really scary times for people. Please have some respect and leave the politics out of it.
Hi Captain Obvious. That’s only an answer if you take the question literally — i.e., “this” means “shoot people with guns”. People flipping out and killing people happens whether or not you have guns.
For example, in Japan it’s basically impossible to own a gun, or even a sword; it’s one of the most locked-down countries in the world. Yet 5 months ago, Kato Tomohiro plowed through an Akihabara crowd with a truck, and then got out and stabbed 12 more people with a dagger. Apparently he believed he was going to lose his job.
Guns provide the method of killing, but not the motivation. It’s lack of social support that causes people to go crazy and want to kill in the first place. Europe happens to do better on social support. Switzerland, for example, has one of the highest gun ownership rates in the world, but also one of the lowest firearm crime rates.
Better gun control…
Some of those USPS employees still seem to be unhappy. I don’t think they are as unstable though.
Gun control and a proper mental health system might help. Oh yeah, but if everyone was carrying a gun, other people could have shot him before he shot everyone else. That solves the problem. NOT.
Brilliant and unstable seem to go hand and hand all to often.
@James, come on
Shocking
days and months of impending news of possible layoff can do that to someone.
Our thoughts and prayers are with the families.
what a fucking idiot… even though this probably doesn’t apply, don’t they say to lay people off on friday so theres less incident over the weekend? when i was working in investment banking they would have security beefed up when the most useless person was layed off.
You worked in investment banking? You can’t even spell. No wonder the world economy is in such a mess.
Employers often go to HUGE lengths to prevent situations like these. For example, the DAY you release people, the time, the way, the circumstances, etc…
People often complain and make fun, noting how impersonal and non-professional it can seem, but you just NEVER know when you may have a scenario like the one mentioned here crop up. And, the practices of firing is usually designed to deflect the emotions surrounding the job loss.
I wonder what approach was taken here. The article says “came back” to the office Friday afternoon so I’m guessing he was fired on Friday morning. I’m wondering if this is “in line” with current recommendations or not. There is no justification, obviously… but one would think that the employee underwent a whirlwind of emotions and did it in a panicked rage. Could it have been prevented in any way?
I’m just trying to start some discussion here but obviously, right now, the main focus should just be in grieving the loss of those involved and hoping/praying for/with their families.
Just remember people… no matter how bad you have it… there is always, ALWAYS hope. When the hard times hit, smile and be confident that you’ll bounce stronger than ever.
Could it have been prevented in any way?
Ban guns? like the rest of the first world.
Guns are not the problem – people are the problem. Banning them would only make the industry completely underground – then only “bad” people have the guns and the responsible people are without. Banning guns makes completely no sense at all.
Yeah, and we need to ban cocaine b/c that will prevent all of the cocaine problems in the US.
oh wait…
Allen and Roman you are idiots. All the gun manufacturers are turding on a plate and feeding it to you. Not only are you eating it, but you’re loving it. Extract your heads from your rear-ends and work out that ALL the statistics show that reducing access to weapons reduces the murder rate. Combine that with a decent (mental) health system and America might actually be inhabitable.
Banning guns is against the constitution of the United States. What you have suggested is blatantly un-American.
If you want security and safety, lock yourself inside a prison.
Very good point. Most companies by policy use Friday afternoon, so that people have the weekend to hopefully defuse. This is somewhat proven to reduce the risk of violence. There’s also generally a policy for extra security for 2-3 business days following layoffs.
Sounds to me like this company could be sued out of business. If I were a family member, I’d want detailed docs of what the company put in place to prevent something like this. And if standard/best practices were in place, that would be enough to go after them.
It’s very important to have your own side business that doesn’t conflict with your job.
Most jobs will allow this in the employee manual contract as long as you are not conflicting.
Its a very bad news, though exployees should understand the situation why they are removed from the company, because employers need to run the business in any case.
So while the company spends its time in all-hands meetings talking about how the employees are the lifeblood of the company and that management values their contributions (each and every one!), it’s really the employee’s responsibility to see themselves as just a cog in the machine that can be swapped out for any reason at any time. It’s just business, right?
Nice little cycle of dysfunction you got there!
Dude, what he has done was terrible terrible event. My thoughts are with the families of the dead people. It is a real sad day for the valley. However, it is naive to use this tragic incident to tell employees to shut up and go if they are fired from a company. What a baloney.
Isnt it better to remove some employees to continue the business of the company, rather than continuing with losses in order to maintain all employees, finally announce a bankrupt and make everyone lose their jobs.
No Employers are happy if they have to remove their efficient employees for managing their expenses. Iam sure you would understand this if you are a Employer and not a Employee!
Chalk three more up for the right to bear arms.
http://www.cic....it-ceremony.asp
“I swear (or affirm) that I will be faithful and bear true allegiance to Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth the Second, Queen of Canada, Her Heirs and Successors, and that I will faithfully observe the laws of Canada and fulfil my duties as a Canadian citizen.”
This could have been us, had we not had the right to shove guns in the faces of the British Empire’s minions.
Any time you think that the right ot bear arms is useless aside from hunting, take a good look at Canada, and their $8 a gallon gas. Gas is $2.29 a gallon here at the AMPM on my street corner, and it’s because of the right to bear arms.
Hell yeah, America.
Gas has been sold by the liter in Canada since 1977. Canada’s Looney surpassed the US$ while oil peaked at $150. This was a side effect of being the leading oil supplier to the US. Canadians have been driving the Smart Car for 4 years. Show some respect or start peddling next time.
Obviously you’re on a gun-nut tear, but to tell you the truth I was kinda with you until you got to the whole “guns mean lower gas prices” thing. I wonder why that didn’t come up in the Presidential Campaign, don’t you? Seems like such a more simpler solution than that whole ANWR drilling hoo-hah.
Look at the gas prices of any country with strict gun control laws. Look at their food prices as well.
Yeah I follow the logic . Twat.
““I swear (or affirm) that I will be faithful and bear true allegiance to Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth the Second, Queen of the American Colonies, Her Heirs and Successors, and that I will faithfully observe the laws of the American Colonies and fulfill my duties as a American Colonial citizen.””
How does that sound ?
That could have been us.
http://en.wikip...ki/Fort_Detroit
“British rule differed in several major ways from French rule. The British required greater taxes and confiscated weapons from “unfriendly” settlers while refusing to sell ammunition to them or to the natives.”
The minute the US would ban firearms, the British would move right back in, doing some type of insurrection, chanting “for queen and country” like well programmed robots.
Any “unfriendlies” would have their guns removed, so they can’t “act up” against the empire and remove their queen’s pic from the $20 and declare independence ever again. They would also make our gas cost 4 times as much and count us as “virtually represented” with a remote parliament, JUST LIKE CANADA.
It would be hell on earth.
Say what you will, that’s what they would do. As soon as we would show signs of being pVssies.
This guy could have simply stabbed these people to death. The right to bear arms is for law abiding citizens for hunting and to defend themselves against what’s posted above. Criminals will get guns anyway.
I believe that guns should not be banned. However you are clueless.
Please elaborate on how guns make our gas cheap?
I’m fairly sure the british government does not effect the cost of gas in Canada. Further more I don’t think Canada is hell on earth. And further more what the hell does any of this have to do with the price of gasoline?!
Sad story, period.
The reason gas costs so much is because of institutions like the heritage fund, and further crown corps, and institutions like CBC and telefilm which
are directly inherited from the UK.
Who do you think pays for all those trips to Canada so that Dukes and Dutchesses can view “their military regiments”, or the Royal trips so the Queen can take a gander at “her country” and her face on “her $20 bill”
You do dumbass, and that’s why gas costs 2-4 times as much in Canada.
Gas is $2.29/gallon here on my street corner in LA. Can you even start to say the same?
Go try to get somewhere with subsidies at the crown corporations the british set up for “your benefit”.
The governor general isn’t elected, she has a MASSIVE budget in Canada. Who pays for her? Who pays for all the ceremonies ect… ??
You do dumbass. You know what would happen if you went up to parliament hill and claimed independence and demanded that the Queen, and those institutions be replaced by a people’s republic? If you demanded that GST be repealed and that you have the same rights as Americans?
They’d put you in the darkest corner of some Ottawa jail and you would be forgotten about. In the name of the Queen of Canada.
You pay MILLIONS for a massive office in Montreal which enforces the use of the French language, when the charter of rights and freedoms, your constitution, signed off by the Queen of another country says that you have freedom of speech.
As a matter of fact, the Queen’s ambassador, the governor general can veto any law in the same manner as our president except that person is NOT elected.
She ALWAYS picks an Asian or native woman or other dual minority as Governor General to make it seem less worse.
You continue pay for all of this in ignorance and accept this. This is why Americans should always have their 2nd amendment rights. After a while people become indifferent and complacent and forget and accept a lesser existence.
ROFL – I can’t believe what I read. I thought they show this stuff to us in Europe just to make fun of you guys in the US, but you are really that naive about your guns. Right – keep going with those guns, or the EVIL BRITS come and get you *choking with laughter*…
“keep going with those guns, or the EVIL BRITS come and get you *choking with laughter*…”
The evil Brits got most of the world not too long ago. East India trading company, Hudson Bay company, Africa, the middle east, India, Mahatma Gandhi ring a bell ??
What makes you think they’re not waiting for the world to disarm “in a spirit of peace” to try to do it again?
Guns are tools just like knives and other tools that can be used as weapons. Even automobiles and trucks can be used as weapons, even planes.
“I thought they show this stuff to us in Europe just to make fun of you guys in the US”
The 2nd amendment right is to keep us armed against the British and other world threats should they decide that they want our land or to subjugate us as they did with Canada, India, the Middle East Australia and several islands in the Caribbean.
Who knows what will happen in the future???
The US constitution empowers individuals rather than government entities. That’s what makes it special.
If Canada would want to be free, they would have to do the same, starting with an emancipation proclamation. They are so impovrished relatively to us, that they don’t dare. A lot of the buildings in Trafalgar square in London hang Canadian flags, and they have too much involvement there to separate easily.
The few in power in Canada, those that let the Mafia run free, are extremely corruptible. They don’t care as long as they get theirs and they are not on the side of the people. Jean Chretien was a perfect and outstanding example of this. The others aren’t far behind.
I don’t feel safe or comfortable that Canada exists north of us and I would prefer to see it become a democracy.
Ok, Chris is a retard. No more needs to be said.
This is soooo great – Chris, you should have a TV show with this. Nobody could fake such a bulls***. I still have tears of laughter roll down my cheeks. Go get a life, maybe start reading a newspaper or a book (no, not a Spiderman comic book). And – psst: the Brits are about to get you!
i don’t just think it is a sad day in slicon valley,but it is a sad day around the world. But in fact,i think it is just one of the catasrophic think around the world during the period of economic crisis.
You are retarded and insensitive. Startups make Silicon Valley whatever it is. Imagine its effect on other startup companies laying-off people. Sun is laying off 6000. But they have a security system in place. Startups don’t have security guarding your doors.
If you are clueless and have a poor grasp of the English language, this probably isn’t the best thread for you to comment in.
Banning guns is definitely the answer, that will stop them! Just look at the UK for example, we now have zero gun related crime!
… oh … wait.
This is really sad news. Losing a job can be terrible I agree but not to the extent of killing others or yourself.
Off late these incidents seem to have increased a lot. Its all upto government. Instead of giving that 700$ billion to stupid idiots who dint know how to run their business it should be used to do something for people who lost their jobs.
Sad to hear that.
Wu shouldn’t have done that.
Even he had work 12 hours a day, 6 days a week. His boss still decided to out source his work to India and laid him off.
Sad….
Welcome to capitalism and globalization. Looks like you are late in getting it.
Capitalism is good. People who spout about the terrible deed of capitalism don’t understand its intrinsic value it provides. Capitalism itself is a theory that favors the force of the market to drive price to equilibrium provided no external force hamper its free will. Unless otherwise provoked, the free market force will punish those that want to control it. No society today has reached the goal of a true capitalist and perhaps no society will.
Maybe employers will be now scared into treating their employees with respect and not like expendable cattle?
Not saying what this bloke did was right, it’s horrifying, but in this current climate and his age he must have felt totally desperate or just lost it. The stress caused by the economy is palpable, definitely, and will push some over the edge like in 1929 (although yes I know it’s in no way as bad as then).
There will be more of these, as the economy goes down the pan. Maybe companies should employ third party companies to help/counsel them to find a new job? Otherwise you’re fuelling the alienation and disenfranchisement, but hey that’s what the capitalist system is best at! /sarcasm
And yes I have experienced something similar a while back in a place I was also working at, police/restraining order etc. thankfully she didn’t have access to a gun.
Capitalist system is a good system. You don’t understand how it works. People should freely engage in commerce. The fact that Wu pursue this action is because he felt he has no other choice. If the choices are not provided, he is uncertain with his future and thus his action is taken upon the choices that are available. He can’t make a choice than what is known to him.
OMG, thats shocking.
It’s really pointless to debate whether or not banning guns would have prevented this instance.
What we have to recognize is that this could have been prevented, one way or another.
But it’s a sad day in the world. And in my location of Richmond Hill, Ontario, Canada, where it is currently raining.
Just read an article about a 8 year old kid that shot his dad and another man in Arizona. The kid used is single shot .22 rifle given to him by his father to shoot both man ( 29 year old and 39 years old)
I am truly sadden by this random act. What happened touched an important issue in the US IT/high-tech industry, and it is important for American to relfect, that is the high-tech/IT outsorucing and job transfering to India
It doesnt have absolutely nothing to do with outsourcing to India, come on, that’s just plain stupid. I am sad for what happened but it’s a random act, just like you said on your first phrase, not related to outsorcing or anything like that. If you want to make some racial comment, just make it.
very sad for the families of victims i hope they will come over this impact in a time to come and hope nothing like this will happen in the future.
http://www.sipo.../management.htm
At least they have sense of humor… it’s always good to take bad news with a laugh
lol, but all the pages linked from the homepage give that error message.
i knew Sid well. He was one of the nicest and the most soft-spoken person I have ever met. it is extremely unfortunate. my condolences go out to his wife and son.
If these people had been armed, none of this would have happened.
Assault weapons ban, my fanny
people with guns get killed all the time
Yeah man lets get everyone carrying weapons – that makes sense. So then every nutcase has access to a gun. Good idea fuckwit.
Siport will get more business from this tragic event. At first I didn’t know Siport does radio communication.
I feel sorry for the families involved. I can’t even imagine how hard it is dealing with it.
This is important tech news. Mass murder happening as a result of a downturn in an industry should get priority attention from said industry.
It’s so sad in every way.
rip. i wont be surprise if you see more a lot of people can go off without warning
In chaos theory a batterflie wings movement in Tokio could ignites a torment over New York.In 1929 depresion in Wall Street made people comitted suicide.Is this the begining of actual financial crush?
I agree with @Ari, I know personally one company in east coast in NoVA area which has the same abusive work atmosphere, I can imagine the tremendous stress one would go through when their hard worked jobs are outsourced.All I can say, is before it takes toll on you from this work environment, please get out and find another job.
Give the guy a year’s salary and he will walk away happy.
Suck his blood and his soul, he will come back for yours.
A year’s salary? Why even fire people then. Might as well put the person to work and get something in return. Thank goodness you’re not running a company
And it seems the Valley has a short memory, or most of you weren’t even born, when a disgruntled and fired employee killed seven and wounded many others at a defense company in Sunnyvale in 1988. (It was even made into a TV movie starring Richard Thomas.)
Or how about the 1993 LA-location movie Falling Down?
Never a good day.
I’ve lurked here at TechCrunch for years, but I have never ventured to comment. The collective attitudes of the commenters, with a few respectful exceptions, is pathetic. I sure as hell hope this group is not reflective of the “in” tech community that reads this blog.
My heart goes out to the families of the victims, they obviously had bright futures ahead of them. Just a reminder that life can be over in an instant, so make it happen and live it your way.
what movie was that? i just tried to find it on imdb but couldnt? have other incidents like this one happened in Silicon Valley other than that one in Sunnyvale in 88?
Terrible. I still can’t believe it.
I am surprised that this does not happen more often. I don’t condone what he did but I understand.
I don’t think this was the exit that the CEO was looking for.
This is a one off, how many people have been laid off in the last 10 years and how many have taken this extreme measure? So how can anyone use this isolated event owning more to the state of mind of an individual than to circumstance, to manufacture a trend or provide an insight?
There is no connection between firing someone and getting killed or getting fired and resorting to killing your co workers. That’s would be an apt definition of unhinged.
People need to be held accountable for their actions and be responsible for themselves whatever the provocation, that’s the defnition of adulthood and maturity. If one can’t live up to these basic requirements in civilized society there are systems to address it but some individuals are clearly not and bad things happen.
Sundry parties imposing their own agendas and muddying the waters on the back of this unfortunate incident is tasteless.
Looks like the SiPort website is mostly offline, but some info is cached in Google.
Amazingly insane comments. “I don’t condone but I understand?” “Suck his blood and his soul, he will come back for yours” WTF? If you’re being abused at work, you might as well get yourself another job.
And to all those who post comments, THINK before posting. These are people that have been killed.
California has effectively made labor laws unenforceable. I have personal experience with a wrongful firing (worked very hard to get me and other employees rest breaks per California law without having them deducted by our employers as he was doing). The State of California’s Labor Enforcement Division is a big joke – it’s now run by a woman who has FOUGHT labor laws on behalf of employers for years, the “investigators” routinely ignore written time and wage documents and other basic rules of evidence and instead write fairy tales tales based on whatever lies the Employers have told them to cover up for their misdeeds. When the Employer lies are in contradiction to their own documents, the “investigator” manages to compose a “decision” that poorly glosses over the fact the employer is blatantly lying to her, and their “legal review” inks up the rubber stamp and passes it along. They’re either corrupt, stupid, or extremely lazy/overworked – whichever way, it’s crystal clear that in the end the State has no intention of enforcing their labor laws.
The employers that have worked so diligently to gut protections for workers and then not enforce whatever laws they couldn’t kill have only themselves to blame when things like this happen. The employer may have been perfectly within his right to let this worker go, BUT the lack of any justice or fairness backing up these relationships creates an atmosphere around employment in which some workers will illustrate the lack of hope in violent ways – the only ways they seem to have at their disposal.
There’s that familiar theme in westerns of the corrupt businessman in cahoots with the town sheriff, screwing the townspeople and making justice impossible. Eventually, the good folk resort to vigilantism in order to try bringing civil law and fairness to their environment.
When a woman reports a rape to the police and the police/prosecuter/judge let the offender(s) off because they say she “dressed provocatively” or “shouldn’t have been in that bar” or whatever other poor excuse he can muster, it’s apparent that “try not to be a victim next time” is the law of the land. Jing Hua Wu, Sid Agrawal, Brian Pugh, and the unidentified woman have now paid the ultimate price for this environment of labor lawlessness.
Please vote Republican so Democrats don’t use this to scare voters into supporting gun control.
Democrats will always attempt to use a crisis to for their Marxist ideals to control you and still your money.
hello
Prostitution in San Francisco is illegal — in theory. In practice, the police do not arrest anyone selling prostitution services in San Francisco. It is a very liberal city.
what does this article has to do with prostitution?
Jing Hua Wu Has been arrested.
Prayers for those families of those he killed.
He is facing a death sentence so he had nothing to lose by running. Maybe people convinced him that he has a chance for a plea but I don’t see it happening.
Like Michael, I was just a few blocks away from 101 California Avenue when the 1993 shooting took place. Our copier guy was on his was to the law office when the incident took place. It wasn’t just the law community in SF that was affected, if you worked anywhere near downtown San Francisco, you remembered that day vividly for years.
That is sad and freaky! No way I’m meeting people I had fired now!
They say it is courteous to have a face to face meeting with someone you fired. =) I guessed this takes the meaning out of courteousy.
There is this perception among Chinese IT engineers that a lot of their Indian colleagues are talkers rather than doers, often back stabbing other collegues too. but when the time comes for review, they take all the credits at the expense of the other colleagues, and the talkers get all the rewards and left others bitter and demoralized. it seems to be a epedemic across America and a constant venting topic on various web sites. Personally I did come across such Indians a few times, but I choose to move rather than suffer.
This is BS. This has nothing to do with Indian/Chinese engineers. This guy killed his boss, not his fellow Indian co-worker.
That said, there must be something behind the scene; it is not that this guy was in extreme financial distress or in difficult visa status (some people on this forum made such speculations) to act insanely; he has been in the states for at least 11 years, and his house in MV is worth just short of $1MM, and it was said that he already paid that off …
this specific indident aside, what guessit said is actually a very real and prevalent problem as I too have come across many such Indians. It’s a sad fact that certain management teams are either too overworked or overwhelmed by huge teams to separate the brown-nosers from the workers. and also in America being loud and obnoxious seems to get you far while if you put your head down and work, people start to think that you must be plotting the next Columbine. It’s screwed up backarsewords thinking like these that’s the cost of extreme individuality and merciless capitalism.
Lol, i second that. Its true these guys just know how to talk, and talk anything (no sense but keep jabbing around). More so the indian media, they just think they are the world’s most powerful county. But there are good guys too in this country.. but overall its more show than go.
This is true – Indians talk more than Chinese and the reasons are two fold:
1) They can speak better English and hence can articulate their thoughts better.
2) Cultural reasons – Indians are like Italians in some sense – they talk about everything – including religion and politics.
Not sure if SiPort is violating WARN Act. According to WARN Act, a company must provide employees 60 advance notice if a plant is going to close or a mass layoff is going to take place. If this is not known, the company may in violation of this act.
This is no way a mass layoff. I guess that the company fired him for “performance” causes, which is usually crap. And this guy could not take the humiliation and other consequences (after being fired, he might have a difficult time to get unemployment insurance or find another job).
This is a very unfortunate event and I feel sad for the families of the victims. The CEO who died has two sons and a wife. I also feel sad for the family of the killer. He has young twin sons and a wife.
I think companies need to hold all hands meetings and explain that though things look for the company right now, it might change rapidly and people might lose jobs. This might soften the blow when the layoff actually happens.
Even if this means creating a low morale environment, its better to layout the real situation about the company’s financial situation and give an opportunity to employees to look around for jobs. If the layoffs dont happen and the company rebounds, then all is good. In case layoffs are unavoidable, then many employees might already quit and get a job elsewhere.