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Man kills wife, five kids, himself after being fired


Mike

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LOS ANGELES, California (CNN) -- A man apparently despondent about losing his job killed his wife and five children before turning the gun on himself, officials said Tuesday.

The bodies of five children and two adults -- the children's mother and father -- were found Tuesday in a home in the Los Angeles neighborhood of Wilmington. Among the dead, authorities said, were an 8-year-old girl and two sets of twins -- 5-year-old girls and 2-year-old boys.

Ervin Lupoe apparently called 911 and contacted a television station by fax before committing suicide, authorities said.

"No words can describe this tragedy," said Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa. "There's no way to comprehend this unspeakable act."

Police were alerted by KABC-TV, who said the station had received a faxed letter and a call from an individual who was threatening suicide. Watch how the letter led authorities to the home »

Responding officers found all seven bodies inside the home, said Capt. William Hayes.

Nearly simultaneously with the KABC call, a man called 911 and reported coming home and finding his family dead, Hayes said. But, Deputy Police Chief Kenneth Garner said, the man told KABC he had killed them.

A suicide note found at the scene "indicated a business dispute" between Lupoe and Kaiser Permanente West Los Angeles Medical Center, Hayes said. In the faxed note to KABC, the man said he was despondent over an employment situation, police said. Watch how the tragedy unfolded »

Kaiser Permanente said Lupoe and his wife, Ana, were both former employees of the medical center. Both had been terminated, Hayes said, with Lupoe's termination coming last week. It appears there were grounds for the termination, and it did not come as a result of layoffs, he said.

In Lupoe's suicide note, he offered a detailed account of his and his wife's work circumstances, calling the family's situation a "tragic story." He ended it by saying, "So after a horrendous ordeal my wife felt it better to end our lives and why leave our children in someone's else's hands."

"There is no reason to believe this is anything other than a murder-suicide," Lt. John Romero said. "There is no current threat to the community, no active search for a suspect."

The father and the three girls were found in one upstairs room of the home, the mother and twin boys in another, police said. Deputy Police Chief Kenneth Garner described the scene as one of the most grisly police have encountered. Watch emergency crews arrive at the home »

Authorities did not release the names of the woman and children.

"Unfortunately, this has become an all-too-common story in the last few months," Villaraigosa told reporters. He urged those who have lost jobs to take advantage of available assistance and resources, including mental health agencies.

"Job centers, foreclosure counselors, and mental health professionals are ready to provide whatever services are necessary to get people back on their feet and to keep families afloat," the mayor said in a written statement.

City Councilwoman Janice Hahn said, "No matter how desperate you are, no matter how frustrated you are, to think this was the only answer -- to take your whole family with you in death -- is just too much to understand."

Kaiser Permanente said it is cooperating with the police investigation.

"We are deeply saddened to hear of the deaths of the Lupoe family," the company said. "Our sympathies are with all their extended family and friends at this time. We are also providing resources and support to our employees who are affected by this tragedy."

Copyright © 2009 Cable News Network

Edited by Guest
*updated story
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No, no... this is a perfect example of the continuing attitudes for the progressive humanistic secular approach to life in general.

Life has no meaning, no substance, it's just a biological reaction to senseless reproduction of a simple organic substance.

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No, no... this is a perfect example of the continuing attitudes for the progressive humanistic secular approach to life in general.

Life has no meaning, no substance, it's just a biological reaction to senseless reproduction of a simple organic substance.

I'm an atheist. I'm a nihilist. I don't support murder.

I completely agree with your second sentence though.

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I'm an atheist. I'm a nihilist. I don't support murder.

I completely agree with your second sentence though.

I am confused, Fool on the hill. You say you are a nihilist - one with total disregard for legal concepts or institutions, an anarchist - how then are you able to reject the concept of murder, as it is a rule of law? To the nihilist, there is life and there is non-life; attachments therein are meaningless. Perhaps what you oppose is murder as it relates to yourself.

Which is understandable.

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No, no... this is a perfect example of the continuing attitudes for the progressive humanistic secular approach to life in general.

Life has no meaning, no substance, it's just a biological reaction to senseless reproduction of a simple organic substance.

Because we all know it is much better to have faith in a blind, idiot God who made humans into automatons that carry out its will :beatnik:

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Because we all know it is much better to have faith in a blind, idiot God who made humans into automatons that carry out its will

Those "automatons" sound more like the plants and animals that, though having life force, are limited creatively. Creative thought-enabled people were necessary so God can have continuously close relations. Problem is, a lot of people misunderstood and thought the words were, "cantankerously closed religion."

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No. Humans are God's automatons and act according to how they were created.

The notion of an all-powerful, all-knowing God that created all of this nullifies the idea that humans have free will. Only the creator's will exists because being an all-knowing entity outside the boundaries/dimensions of space-time means that God knows every decision the creations will make prior to their action; thus making the judgment of such actions ridiculous (as in a judge knowing the verdict before the crime is committed). Try this: can you say and/or do anything that is not known to God? :beatnik: Even then, God can only do what is right and what is good; God can never do evil and wrong because it is not in its nature to do so. Since God knows the outcome of every decision before the decision is made and God always chooses the right and the good, then how is this "free will"? It's not free will. It's quite predictable in a general sense. If God doesn't have free will, how can God give it to the creations?

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I am confused, Fool on the hill. You say you are a nihilist - one with total disregard for legal concepts or institutions, an anarchist - how then are you able to reject the concept of murder, as it is a rule of law? To the nihilist, there is life and there is non-life; attachments therein are meaningless. Perhaps what you oppose is murder as it relates to yourself.

Which is understandable.

I said I was a nihilist, not an anarchist, but it would be irrelevant if I was an anarchist.

In this case, I'm not concerned with murder as the breaking of a law so much as something which goes against my morals. Simply because I'm not religious does not mean that I have no morals; it simply means I've found them myself rather than reading them out of a book.

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No. Humans are God's automatons and act according to how they were created.

The notion of an all-powerful, all-knowing God that created all of this nullifies the idea that humans have free will. Only the creator's will exists because being an all-knowing entity outside the boundaries/dimensions of space-time means that God knows every decision the creations will make prior to their action; thus making the judgment of such actions ridiculous (as in a judge knowing the verdict before the crime is committed). Try this: can you say and/or do anything that is not known to God? :beatnik: Even then, God can only do what is right and what is good; God can never do evil and wrong because it is not in its nature to do so. Since God knows the outcome of every decision before the decision is made and God always chooses the right and the good, then how is this "free will"? It's not free will. It's quite predictable in a general sense. If God doesn't have free will, how can God give it to the creations?

I don't know about all that, BA. I mean we DO have the Creator/Free Will Creation model in our own existence and it seems to work OK - every time out.

I (with a little help from my mate ;) ) "created" 3 human beings. They all have part of me inside them permanently and yet I cannot dictate to them how to think, act or react. I can give training, advice, care-filled nuturing and sincere love, but there are no guarantees they will follow my will for their lives (nor would I really want them to, in the strictest sense, lest they become automatons.)

Seems to me that if idiot me can do that, then an omnipotent God, transcending time and space could have figured out how to pull off the free will aspect in an original creation.

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Ah, but you do not have the power of foreknowledge. You don't know every decision your creations will make and you can judge accordingly. You CAN do that. God cannot. God is also the one who set everything in motion and knows the outcome... which means every decision you will make has already been planned. Hence, humans (and everything else) are God's automatons. It's no big deal, though. God doesn't have what we would refer to as "free will" either :beatnik:

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