http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/01/27/ervin-antonio-lupoe-kills_n_161446.html
Ervin Antonio Lupoe Kills Wife, 5 Kids, Himself After Being Fired
THOMAS WATKINS | January 27, 2009 11:54 PM EST | AP
LOS ANGELES — A man fatally shot his wife, five young children and
himself Tuesday after he faxed a note to a TV station claiming the
couple had just been fired from their hospital jobs and together planned
the killings as an escape for the whole family. "Why leave our children
in someone else's hands," Ervin Lupoe wrote in a letter posted late
Tuesday on the KABC-TV Web site.
The station called police after receiving the fax, and a police dispatch
center also received a call from a man who stated, "I just returned home
and my whole family's been shot."
Officers rushed to the home in Wilmington, a small community between the
ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach, about 8:30 a.m., apparently within
minutes of the killings. Officers could still smell the gunshot residue
in the air.
Although the fax asserted that Ana Lupoe planning the killings of the
whole family, police Lt. John Romero said Ervin Lupoe was the suspect. A
revolver was found next to his body.
Ana Lupoe's body was found in an upstairs bedroom with the bodies of the
couple's twin 2-year-old boys. The bodies of an 8-year-old girl and twin
5-year-old girls were found alongside Ervin Lupoe's in another bedroom.
All were shot in the head, coroner's Assistant Chief Ed Winter said.
It was the fifth mass death of a Southern California family by murder or
suicide in a year. Police urged those facing tough economic times to get
help rather than resort to violence.
"Today our worst fear was realized," said Deputy Chief Kenneth Garner.
"It's just not a solution. There's just so many ways you find
alternatives to doing something so horrific and drastic as this."
Story continues below
Ervin Lupoe removed three of the children from school about a week and a
half ago, saying the family was moving to Kansas, the principal told
KCAL-TV. Crescent Heights Elementary School Principal Cherise
Pounders-Caver said nothing seemed to be troubling Lupoe at that time;
she did not ask why the family was moving.
Kaiser Permanente Medical Center West Los Angeles released a statement
confirming both Lupoe and his wife had worked there; both were medical
technicians.
"We are deeply saddened to hear of the deaths of the Lupoe family," it
said in a statement.
In his letter, Ervin Lupoe claimed he and his wife both had been fired
and that she suggested they kill themselves and their children, too.
Police described the fax but did not release details.
The letter indicated that Lupoe and his wife had been under
investigation for misrepresenting their employment to an outside agency
in order to obtain childcare. He claimed that an administrator told the
couple on Dec. 23: "You should not even had bothered to come to work
today you should have blown your brains out."
The couple complained to the human resources department and eventually
were offered an apology but two days later the Lupoes were fired,
according to the letter.
"They did nothing to the manager who stated such and did not attempt to
assist us in the matter, knowing we have no job and five children under
8 years with no place to go. So here we are," the note said.
At the bottom of the note, Lupoe wrote, "Oh lord, my God, is there no
hope for a widow's son?"
The Kaiser Permanente statement made no comment on the claims in Lupoe's
fax.
"It looks like they might have had grounds for his termination ... it
wasn't that he was laid off as a result of the economic situation,"
police Capt. Billy Hayes said.
Lupoe's fax identified his children as Brittney, 8; 5-year-old twins
Jaszmin and Jassely; and twins Benjamin and Christian, ages 2 years and
4 months.
Winter said the children were ages 2 to 8 but his agency would not
release the names. He said that although the father's family had been
notified, relatives of the rest of the family had not been located.
The two-story home, much larger than its one-story neighbors, sits in
front of a railroad track in Wilmington, a small community about 18
miles south of downtown. A children's playset stood in the backyard.
On his Facebook page, Lupoe posted photographs of a daughter at karate
class, and of a fancy tub and wash basins in an apparently remodeled
bathroom.
Retired truck driver Jaime Solache, who lives a few doors down, said
many of these newer, larger homes in the neighborhood had gone into
foreclosure. The Lupoe house, which has a sign hanging above the
driveway reading "The Lupoe's Pad," is about 6 years old, Solache said.
News of the killings sent shivers through the community, and several
neighbors came to the yellow police tape to watch a steady procession of
officials enter and leave the home.
"This area right here is quiet, calm," said Armando Chacon, who lives
one block north. "People like to sit out at weekends and barbecue. Other
than this, no problems at all."
In 1994, Lupoe was charged with carrying a concealed firearm but it was
either dismissed or not prosecuted, court documents show.
Lupoe got a state license to work as a security guard in 1989 and a
permit to carry a gun as a security guard in 1993 but both expired in
2007, said Russ Heimerich, a spokesman for the state Bureau of Security
and Investigative Services.
Bob Pierce, a Long Beach attorney who represented the Lupoes in an auto
accident, said the case did not involve any serious injuries and the
family was expected to receive "well below $10,000," he said.
Lupoe called Monday to find out when the money might be coming, Pierce
said. Pierce told him that it might be another week or two "and he said
'no problem.'"
The region has been shook by several recent mass murders.
On Dec. 24, a man dressed up as Santa Claus invaded a Christmas Eve
party and killed his ex-wife and eight of her relatives. The man later
killed himself.
In October, an unemployed financial manager despairing over extreme
money problems shot and killed his wife, three children, mother-in-law
and himself in their home in the Porter Ranch area of the San Fernando
Valley.
In June, five members of a Turkish-American family, clad in black, were
found dead in an upscale home in San Clemente. Investigators say it was
apparently a suicide pact but the reason is a mystery.
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