THE UNIVERSITY DARY KASAN
WEDNESDAY: IANJARY 28,2000
NEWS
3A
NATIONAL
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Unidentified neighbors react to the news of a man — as yet not identified — who apparently upset about his job situation, killed his wife and five children before committing suicide in a nearby two-story tracet home in Wilmington, Calif., on Tuesday. Wilmington, about 18 miles south of downtown Los Angeles, is a 10-square-mile community adjacent to the Port of Los Angeles.
Man kills five children, wife, self
BY THOMAS WATKINS Associated Press
LOS ANGELES — A medical technician fatally shot his wife, five young children and himself Monday after claiming in a note to a TV station that he and his wife both had just been fired. Police
argued those facing tough economic times to get help rather than resort to violence.
"Today our worst fear was realized," Los Angeles Deputy Chief Kenneth Garner said. "It's just not a solution. There's just so many ways you find alternatives to doing something so horrific and drastic as this."
"There's just so many ways you find alternatives to doing something so horrific and drastic as this."
Ervin Antonio Lupeo and his wife, Ana, also a medical technician, worked at Kaiser Permanente Medical Center West Los Angeles, the hospital said.
"We are deeply saddened to hear of the deaths of the Lupoe family," it said in a statement.
In the letter he faxed to a TV station, Ervin Lupoe claimed he and his wife both had been fired and that she suggested they kill their selves and their children, too.
"Why leave the children to a stranger?" the man wrote, according to KABC-TV.
Although the fax asserted that the woman was involved, police Lt. John Romero said Lupoe was the suspect in the murders.
KABC reported that the man claimed in the fax that a medical center administrator rebuffed them when they showed up to work, told them to file a union grievance and said, "You should have blown your brains out."
grievance but nothing was done and two days later they were fired, KABC said.
"They did nothing to the manager who started such and did not attempt to assist us in the matter, knowing we have no job and five children under 8 years old with no place to go. So here we are," the note said.
KENNETH GARNER Los Angeles deputy
Lupoe wrote that they filed a
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. Police described the fax but did not release the
detail reported by KABC.
"He was going through some critical situations at the job, that's what he described in that two-page letter, ongoing problems at the job, and that's what prompted him to take his own life and his family's, from what was said in the fax letter," Garner said.
Police said the child victims
Their names were not released. Lupoe's Web page on the Facebook social networking site showed smiling photos of the children.
were an 8-year-old girl, twin 5-year-old girls and twin 2-yearold boys.
The TV station called police after receiving the fax, and a police communications center also received a call from a man who stated, "I just returned home and my whole family's been shot." Garner said.
"There is a disconnect but we believe our suspect is the one who called." Garner said.
Officers rushed to the twostory home in Wilmington, near the sprawling twin ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach, shortly before 8:30 a.m., apparently within minutes of the killings.
Garner said the officers could still smell the gunshot residue and a revolver was found by the man's body.
The bodies of the girls and the father were in an upstairs bedroom.
The mother and boys were in a bedroom downstairs.
Gaza violence flares again
INTERNATIONAL
Roadside bomb kills Israeli soldier, Israel responds with airstrike
Israeli soldiers wait in a staging area near Israel's border with the Gaza Strip, in southern Israel, on Tuesday. Palestinian militants detonated a bomb next to an Israeli patrol along the border with Gaza, killing one soldier and wounding three others.
BY JOSEF FEDERMAN Associated Press
ASSOCIATED PRESS
JERUSALEM — A Palestinian roadside bomb killed an Israeli soldier patrolling the border with Gaza on Tuesday, and Israel responded with an airstrike that wounded a Hamas militant in a flare-up of violence that undermined a cease-fire on the eve of a visit by the new U.S. Mideast envoy.
Israel briefly sent tanks and buldozers across the border into Gaza after its soldier was killed and three others were wounded in the bombing.
The video showed a large explosion nest to a jeep moving on the Israeli side of the border fence. A huge plume of smoke emerges as the jeep stops. Two Israeli soldiers are then seen running toward the jeep, and gunfire is directed at them before a secondary blast hits them, too.
There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the bombing, but Ramattan, a Palestinian news agency, later released a video of the roadside bombing allegedly filmed by militants it did not identify.
Hamas said the Israeli airstrike wounded one of its militants as he rode a motorcycle in the southern Gaza town of Khan Younis.
It was the worst bloodshed since the sides declared the ceasefire on Jan. 18 to end a three-week Israeli offensive.
Since withdrawing its troops, Israel has threatened to retaliate for any violations of the informal truce.
Olmer later hinted that a much tougher response could soon follow, telling a gathering of senior civil servants that Israel is not bound by any formal cease-fire with Hamas. "Israel's response has yet to come," he said.
"We will respond, but there is no point in elaborating." Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak said during a trip to a military base in southern Israel. Later, he convened an emergency meeting of top security officials. He spoke with Prime Minister Ehud Olmert after the meeting, but no details were released.
Mushir al-Masri, a Hamas lawmaker, said Israel was to blame for continuing to fire into Gaza. Al-Masri said his group had not agreed to a full cease-fire but only to a "hull" in fighting. "The Zionists are responsible for any aggression," he said.
After Tuesday's blast, heavy gunfire was heard along the border in central Gaza, and hovering Israeli helicopters fired machine gun bursts, Palestinian witnesses said.
An Israeli jet set off a loud sonic boom over Gaza City not long afterward, possibly as a warning.
Palestinian residents said Israeli tanks and bulldozers also entered the area where the roadside bombing took place and were tearing up some vacant land — apparently to prevent it from being used to stage attacks.
Not long after the bombing, a 27-year-old Gaza farmer was killed by Israeli gunfire along the border several miles away. Palestinian medical officials said.
The military had no comment, and it was unclear if the two incidents were related.
The violence cast a shadow over the arrival of George Mitchell, President Barack Obama's special Mideast envoy. Mitchell arrived in Egypt on Tuesday and was set to visit Israel on Wednesday for three days of talks with Israeli and Palestinian leaders on how to get stalled peace efforts back on track.
Mitchell is expected to meet Olmert, top security officials, and the pro-Western Palestinian president, Mahmoud Abbas.
Mitchell has no plans to meet with Hamas, which the U.S., Israel and European Union consider a terrorist group. Hamas seized Gaza from forces loyal to Abbas in June 2007. Hamas' control of Gaza, and its refusal to recognize Israel's right to exist, are considered major obstacles to peace efforts.
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WED. JANUARY 28, 7PM @ KANSAS UNION, PARLOR ABC
Wednesday, January 28, 8:30pm ECM (1204 Oread Ave.)
New Mexico Alternative Spring Break Informational Meeting
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Find out more about this great opportunity to participate in service projects while exploring the theme,
"What Do I Want My Life to Say?"
For more information, please contact Meredith Van Natta at mjvan@ku.edu.