Police arrest alleged gunman in office park slayings that left 3 dead
There was no indication that Jing Hua Wu was angry or violent when he walked into the offices of his Santa Clara employer on Friday, a few hours after he'd been fired. So there was no reason that three top officials of the company should refuse his request for a meeting, according to Santa Clara police.
But shortly after Wu and the three executives went into a conference room, police say, the 47-year-old engineer pulled a 9 mm handgun and shot all three dead.
Sixteen hours later, a Bay Area manhunt ended when Wu quietly surrendered to police outside a business at the corner of El Camino Real and Grant Road in Mountain View. Santa Clara police chief Steve Lodge said Wu was unarmed and made no attempt to struggle with the officers who arrested him.
The shootings caused "genuine fear in the community," Lodge told reporters at a news conference this afternoon, explaining that it was a relief "to be able to take him into custody."
Wu was being interviewed this afternoon by Santa Clara police, who planned to book him on suspicion of three counts of homicide for the Friday afternoon slayings at SiPort, a small semiconductor firm at 3255-7 Scott Blvd.
Police identified the victims as Marilyn Lewis, 67 of San Jose, who was the company's head of human resources; Brian Pugh, 47 of Los Altos, who was vice president for operations, and Sid Agrawal, 56 of Fremont, who was the company's co-founder and chief executive officer.
"These were truly three innocent victims, just doing their jobs," Lodge said. "That's what makes it such a tragic event."
Wu had been let go from SiPort on Friday morning because of his poor performance, according a SiPort spokesman. Earlier police reports had indicated that he been laid off, but the spokesperson said that was not the case.
Later in the day, Wu returned to the business and asked to speak with the three executives, according to Lodge. The chief said it's unclear what was discussed during the meeting, because only Wu and the three victims were in the room. But other employees were at the SiPort offices and saw Wu enter around the business around 3 pm and leave less than an hour later.
Wu gave no indication of any violent intentions when he arrived, Lodge said. "He must not have been acting too strangely, for them to agree to the meeting."
The test engineer was casually dressed, according to police, who said it's not clear how he concealed the handgun before he pulled it out and started firing. Employees heard the shots and called police around 3:50 p.m.. Lodge said Wu apparently did not threaten or fire his gun at any other employees.
Wu had no history of violence or mental illnes, as far as police
know, Lodge said.
Police worked through the night to find Wu. They checked his home in Mountain View, but he apparently did not go there after the shooting, Lodge said. The chief declined to say what led police to the location where Wu was arrested on Saturday morning, and he would not elaborate on what Wu was doing at the time of his arrest.
Wu was not carrying the gun when he was arrested, according to Lodge, who said police are serving search warrants in an effort to find it. He would not say where they were looking.
Shocked neighbors said Wu was a friendly man who lived on Emerson Lane, a quiet Mountain View cul-de-sac with his wife and three children, for the past 11 years. But none of the neighbors contacted Saturday said they knew him very well.
"He's been a very good-natured, calm, even-tempered guy," said Jim Pollart, who lives a few houses down from Wu. "I can't imagine what could have caused him to do this."
One neighbor said he thought Wu's wife is an engineer, although state records show that she has a real estate license.
Pollart said police warned neighboring residents Friday afternoon that they might want to leave their homes until Wu was caught. No one answered the door at most of the homes on Emerson Lane on Saturday.
Meanwhile, friends of the three slain executives were reeling with grief.
"They were all just really solid, nice people. They all had families and children," said SiPort board member Drew Lanza of the victims. "This whole thing is really sad."
Lanza Agrawal as "a gentle, soft-spoken man" and Pugh as "fun-loving, gregarious." He said Lewis was "really a great gal."
Lewis, who lived in a San Jose, worked at NeoScale Systems before joining SiPort in November. 2006. In a LinkedIn profile, she wrote: "As is customary in a start-up industry, I wear multiple hats...facilities, HR, recruiting, Payroll, etc."
Pugh, who was married and had two children, had grown up in San Jose and was living in San Diego before returning to the Bay Area to work at SiPort about a year ago.
"He's a very detail-oriented, numbers person. He was a very loving family man," said Robert Boles, an architect who was working on remodeling project at Pugh's home. A woman who answered the door at Pugh's home on Saturday said she was too upset to talk.
Friends said Agrawal came to America from India with big dreams in the 1970's — and by most accounts he succeeded.
"We all had dreams of higher studies and coming to America," said Sanjay Mittal, who had known Agrawal since his days in college at the Indian Institute of Technology in Kanpur.
Ambitious with an entrepreneurial spirt, Agrawal worked at Adobe, Intel and Bell Labs, and he started a handful of companies on his own — some more successful than others and in fields as varied as networking to semi-conducting.
At one point in the late 80's, he went to Bangalore to set up Intel there for the company. His latest venture appeared to be doing well, friends say. Specializing in chips for hybrid digital radio, the company was attracting the interests of venture capitalists and Agrawal seemed excited about its prospects.
"He was pretty happy, I remember him telling me the products were starting to work," said Mittal, who also owns a software company and was planning a trip to Brazil with Agrawal and his wife. "He worked very hard, we have to, you work late hours and travel a lot, whatever it takes to succeed."
Beyond his businesses interests, Agrawal had highly cultivated tastes. He collected art even traveling to Cuba, for a particular piece, and enjoyed good wine. "I remember I had to carry a piece of art for him from India," said Arya Bhattacherjee, whose known the Agrawal's for more than two decades. "
. But more than that, Agrawal's pride was his family. His wife, Asha, and two sons, Ankur and Ashish. Ankur's a freshman at Harvard and Ashish already had graduated from Harvard and is studying medicine at University of California San Francisco.
"He was a very honest, very gentle, a very straightforward individual, a real family man " said Steve Fields, a contractor who worked with Agrawal. In fact, Fields said, on Friday afternoon, the two exchanged emails, Fields told him he couldn't finish a particular job because a family matter had come up.
At 2:23 p.m., Agrawal emailed back: "It's okay, family comes first."
Aiman Kabakibo, who founded SiPort with Agrawal in 2004, had assumed the role of acting CEO, Lanza said. Kabakibo spoke only briefly when reached Saturday, explaining that he was busy tending the needs of the victims' families.
"I'm still trying to digest this," he said. "We're all close friends."
Bay Area News Group reporter Joshua Melvin contributed to this report.
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游客 [口.老.文.周]
2008-11-20 11:16
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