Mourning, unease after Silicon Valley slayings
Just a few months ago, Sid Agrawal, the chief operating officer of a 4-year-old semiconductor start-up in Santa Clara, Calif., was opining on the Silicon India site about the technology industry, noting that "green technology is the buzzword of the day" and bemoaning the challenge of "hiring good analog designers."
Sid Agrawal's recent Silicon India post was titled "Opportunities Galore for Semiconductors."
(Credit: Silicon India)On Friday, however, Agrawal, 56, became one of three victims in a fatal workplace shooting that has saddened friends, colleagues, and family members, and left Silicon Valley employees--already shook up over constant reports of layoffs and bad economic news--feeling all the more uneasy.
"Silicon Valley has lost a great warrior," said Deepak Bhagat, a close friend and fellow alumnus at the Indian Institute of Technology, Kanpur. Bhagat said Agrawal wasn't someone who talked a lot, but what he said was "loaded with wisdom."
The tragedy unfolded at almost 4 p.m. PST Friday, as police officers responded to a report of multiple gunshots fired at a Santa Clara office park on Scott Boulevard in a suite occupied by SiPort, which makes digital multimedia broadcast chips for mobile markets, according to the company Web site. Dead at the scene were Agrawal of Fremont; Brian Pugh, 47, of Los Altos, who was vice president of operations; and Marilyn Lewis, 67, of San Jose, who was head of human resources.
The suspect, Jing Hua Wu, 47, of Mountain View, had been terminated from his position as an engineer for SiPort and reportedly asked for a meeting with his former employers to talk about his employment. He allegedly shot and killed all three victims with a handgun and fled the area in an SUV, police said. At about 10:45 a.m. Saturday, Santa Clara police arrested Wu on public road in Mountain View and booked him on three counts of homicide. His arraignment is scheduled for Wednesday morning.
Initial stories widely reported that Wu had been laid off from the company, but SiPort on Saturday issued a statement clarifying that Wu was terminated and SiPort has never had any layoffs.
Jing Hua Wu
(Credit: Santa Clara County Department of Corrections)"The entire SiPort staff and board are in mourning," Aiman Kabakibo, the new CEO and company founder, said in the statement. "We are a close-knit team of engineers and entrepreneurs who built this company together."
Santa Clara Police spokesman Lt. Mike Sellers said the incident, especially amid the economic climate and continued layoff announcements, has triggered many questions about office security. So much so that he had planned a small press conference Monday to talk about related securities resources and programs for companies. That said, however, Sellers sees Friday's shooting as "an isolated situation." The victims likely didn't suspect a problem, he said, or else they wouldn't have agreed to meet with the suspect.
Still, the incident has people saddened and worried, said Seshan Rammohan, executive director of TIE (The Indus Entrepreneurs) Silicon Valley, whose members were friends and colleagues of Agrawal's "It's really devastating...and very sobering," he said. "People are very circumspect when they have to deal with layoffs and with terminations."
Bhagat, who was with Agrawal at a dinner party two Fridays ago, said his friend was cautious about he economy in general, but seemed very confident about SiPort's position, as it recently got its chip working. With his industry experience at Adobe and Bell Labs and with two prior start-ups, Agrawal--who came emigrated to the U.S. from India in 1975--was a very "capable executive" who always "pushed the technology envelope," Bhagat said.
Yet Bhagat too--along with his colleagues--said he can't help but wonder about how the shooting relates to the stresses of the economy. He got an e-mail from a colleague in India today who had heard about the killings and wondered, "Is this the tip of the iceberg?"
Michelle Meyers is an associate editor who tracks online happenings in media, entertainment, and politics. E-mail Michelle. 
Employers ought to take security precautions to protect themselves and their workers against former employees whoj might have a homicidal grudge.
Companies should have armed guards. Individual executives should consider getting training and permits to carry concealed weapons for their personal protection.
Many of these tragic murders could have been prevented by some basic security precautions. Employers and business executives need to wake up.
The one way they could have resolved it and didn't was to find this man another job somewhere else, for someone else. If it was so close knit of a business they would have tried to ease the exit some. Oh well the dead are dead and the living still struggle to live. Other places that have such security arrangements that use armed guards pretty much escort (More like strong armed force of removal.) the fired employee out of the building and send him/her their stuff as they call it. Wait until it is the guards turn to be fired then you will see more problems with this idea.
It is a shame that people can not learn to be more humane to their employees, profits over people has never worked and the Big three automakers are now learning that lesson the hard way. The picture of the gunner looks like yet another man pushed beyond what he can take, it also looks like he has not had a vacation in quite some time. What the gunman did was not right, but I bet if this story was developed more they would see something else wrong as well, because they did not give the reason he was fired.
D~W
Stress, like guns, kills.
JimB
Companies DO have armed guards. But they cannot watch everyone everywhere every minute. Furthermore, you assume the perp here was NOT an executive. If he had been trained and permited to carry concealed weapons for personal protection who knows how many more up the food chain would have been shot dead. An armed camp is no solution--it is a truism that weapons are no cure-all because very often they wind up being used against the owner..
You miss another very important point--maybe, many similar tragic scenes were prevented by some of the sound management practices suggested by Draq. You don't read about what DID NOT happen, you read only what bad did happen. Posters need to wake up, drop the blinders and see the big picture.
- by walwebster November 18, 2008 5:15 PM PST
- Yet one more very important point of distinction -- people get laid off, quite ruthlessly sometimes, in all countries, but Only In America do they go postal (or "silicon").
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(13 Comments)There's an 800-lb gorilla in the room representing the main difference .... and HE's probably armed, too ...