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LA man upset over job kills wife, 5 kids, himself
(Agencies)
Updated: 2009-01-28 11:41

LOS ANGELES – An American man who fatally shot his wife, five young children and himself Tuesday had earlier faxed a note to a TV station claiming the couple had just been fired from their hospital jobs and together planned the killings as a final escape for the whole family.


This undated photo obtained January 27, 2009 from Ervin Antonio Lupoe's Facebook web page shows Ervin Antonio Lupoe (top L), his wife Ana (top R) and their five children: Brittney (top), twin girls Jaszmin and Jassely and twin boys Benjamin and Christian. The exact identification of the sets of twins is not known. A medical technician fatally shot his wife, five young children and himself Tuesday after claiming in a note to a TV station that he and his wife both had just been fired. [Agencies]

"Why leave the children to a stranger?" Ervin Lupoe wrote, according to KABC-TV.

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 am, 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 Lupoe was the suspect. A revolver was found next to his body.

Ana Lupoe's body was found in a downstairs bedroom with the bodies of the couple's twin 2-year-old boys. The bodies of an 8-year-old girl, twin 5-year-old girls were found alongside Lupoe's in an upstairs bedroom.

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."

Lupoe removed three of the children from school about a week and a half ago, saying the family was moving to Kansas, the school 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 worked there; both were medical technicians.

"We are deeply saddened to hear of the deaths of the Lupoe family," it said in a statement.

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