Unemployed man kills his family members and commits suicide

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An unemployed man with an advanced finance degree allegedly shot and killed his family members and commits suicide. Photo: EiTB

An unemployed man with an advanced finance degree allegedly shot and killed his wife, three children, mother-in-law and then himself in an upscale home in a gated community in the Los Angeles area, police said on Monday.

The deaths of the family from India occurred sometime after Saturday evening, police said. Officers found the bodies on Monday after the wife failed to show up at a neighbor’s home to go to work as a pharmacy bookmaker.

Officers found the 69-year-old mother-in-law dead in bed on the first floor. Upstairs, they found a 19-year-old son dead in bed in the master bedroom. The gunman's 39-year-old wife was found in another room, also apparently shot while sleeping, police said. In an adjoining room, a 12-year-old son was dead on the floor and his seven-year-old brother was dead in bed. The father's body also was found there with a handgun in his grasp, police added.

The 45-year-old gunman left a will and two suicide notes, one for police and one for friends and relatives, police said. They added that it appeared the man killed his family, then himself, after becoming "embroiled" in a financial crisis. The man wrote in his suicide letter that he felt he had two options - to just kill himself or to kill himself and his family - and decided the second option was more honourable, they added.

The gunman had a master's of business administration in finance and formerly worked for PricewaterhouseCoopers and Sony Pictures, but had been unemployed for several months, police said. They did not specify what financial trouble the man had been in but noted that the family did not own the home. Investigators determined that the father was at least the part-owner of a financial holding company.

He was listed as a co-manager of a corporation called SKGL, which is incorporated in Nevada, according to state records. The gated community of Sorrento Pointe, where the family murder-suicide took place, is among several developments along curving lanes and cul-de-sacs set on the foothills of the Santa Susana Mountains in Porter Ranch, about 23 miles (37 kilometres) northwest of downtown Los Angeles.