Four family members killed in a murder-suicide

Asian Americans avoid talking about mental illness because of the social stigma attached to it.

Seething with anger, frustration and jealousy may have pushed a man over the edge to kill four family members before taking his own life Monday, according to relatives.

San Jose, Calif. police believe that Sunday (June 23) night, Chi Dinh Ta, 60, fatally shot four relatives with a stolen 9mm handgun. His wife and a daughter climbed over a back fence to escape the carnage.

After police responded to the shooting and began searching the area, early Monday morning they found Ta nearby, fatally wounded from an apparent self-inflicted gunshot.

Authorities would not name the victims — three women and one man who had recently arrived from Vietnam — have not been released by the Santa Clara County Medical Examiner-Coroner’s Office until family members could identify them.

Ta was barred from owning or possessing firearms or ammunition because of three 1988 felony convictions in Orange County for second-degree robbery, attempted second-degree robbery and criminal conspiracy. He served two years of a five-year prison sentence, earning credit for time served and good behavior, and was granted parole in 1990, according to records from the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation.

“He called me and he said, ‘Would you take my daughter?’ ” the cousin, To V Khuat, said in an interview with the Mercury News. “He said he was going to kill them. He had said things like this before, but I had always talked him down, calmed him down.”

Khuat, whose wife is Ta’s cousin, said in an interview that the gunman had often spoken to him about his troubles with his family.

“He was jealous that his wife was able to sponsor her family and he was not able to bring his family here because of things in his record,” Khuat said. “That is the cause.”

Police would not confirm or comment on Khuat's theory as they continued their investigation.

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