According to rumor: “Jing Hua Wu, the engineer who police say fatally shot three executives at a Santa Clara startup company last week just hours after being fired, spent the last few years amassing a large portfolio of investment properties.
According to public records from eight counties in three states, Wu and his wife own at least 19 homes and vacant lots worth more than $2.4 million”.
Update: 11/19/2008, Rumor confirmed: “The engineer owns more than a dozen investment properties whose value apparently has diminished in the real estate crisis.” ~San Jose Mercury News
Update 11/19/2008, San Jose Mercury News: “Ex-SiPort engineer formally charged with murders; slain CEO’s family gathers“:
According to San Jose Mercury News: “Clad in a bright yellow smock indicating his confinement in the county jail’s mental health ward, former SiPort test engineer Jing Hua Wu was formally charged Wednesday with three counts of murder in the gunshot slayings of colleagues who met with him after he was fired.“:
Jing Wu (ex SiPort engineer) court hearing
Photo: San Jose Mercury News
Update 11/21/2008, San Jose Mercury News (“911 calls offer glimpse of SiPort tragedy; suspect had work, money problems”):
“On the dispatch recordings, two employees calling from SiPort identify the shooter right away and say they saw the 47-year-old Wu with a gun. They told dispatchers Wu fled the building wearing a baseball cap and beige clothing and drove off.The first call came in at 3:52 p.m. and the longest call was 3 minutes and 40 seconds. When police arrived, they found three managers dead inside: Marilyn Lewis, 67, of San Jose, head of human resources; Brian Pugh, 47, of Los Altos, vice president of operations; and Sid Agrawal, 56, of Fremont, chief executive and co-founder.
While speculation centers on Wu’s employment problems at SiPort, property records show he also was facing significant financial woes due to the real estate downturn. While he looked prosperous on paper, with properties in California, Arkansas and Washington, several are worth less than he paid for them. And records also indicate that he also is tapping heavily into the equity in his Mountain View home.
It appears that Wu qualifies for a taxpayer-funded legal defense for several reasons. His investments are underwater; he is in jail without bail until the trial; and he is not earning a wage. A private attorney in a triple homicide would typically cost 500,000 to $750,000.
Wu invested in two houses in comfortable suburban neighborhoods of Vancouver, Wash., with good schools in 2005 and 2007 — near the top of the then-booming market, said Vancouver Realtor Lisa Costa. At the time, property in the city was appreciating rapidly, with equity in some locations ranging from 10 to 25 percent.
But when the bubble burst, Wu was caught holding the properties.
For instance, Wu bought one of the houses — on Northeast 145th Street — for $280,426 in May 2007. Its assessed value quickly shot up to $308,000, Costa said. But the latest assessment puts its value at only $276,000 — less than Wu paid 18 months ago.
“I’m sure when he bought it, he thought he was going to make money,” Costa said, “but the market shifted virtually overnight.”
Wu also owes more than the current value of two houses he bought before the crash in an affluent gated retirement community in Hot Springs, Ark., according to Realtor Keitha Turner of Village Pro.
Both houses in Hot Springs Village are now worth less than when he bought them in 2000 and 2005, despite the considerable amenities of the gated community, including nine golf courses and 11 lakes in the heart of the scenic Ouachita Mountains.
He bought one house in 2000 for $198,000; the other in 2005 for $215,000. “If you could even find a buyer, with so many houses in the Village for sale,” Turner said, “his would probably go for $10,000 to $20,000 less than he paid.”
The crimes Wu is accused of have reverberated there. One of Wu’s renters demanded Saturday that Turner change the locks on Wu’s property, she said, for fear the test engineer would show up and kill them.
In fact, Wu has been locked inside the mental health ward of the main county jail since his arrest. In another of the 911 calls, a SiPort employee, said he knew who had done the shootings.
Caller: I heard shots fired and I saw a gun. The guy’s name is Jing, I don’t know his last name, (pause) Wu.
The caller also talks about what happened moments before the gun went off. “He was in an argument with two employees.”
When the dispatcher asks if the employees know who the shooter is, the caller doesn’t hesitate.
The answer is: Yes.”
Update-2, 11/21/2008, 911Audio (SJ Mercury News links):
They’re shot in the head’
‘I saw a gun’
‘We’re on the way’
Update-3, 11/21/2008 YouTube videos regarding Siport shooting:
LayoffBlog.com 