SAN JOSE (AP/KRON) — A relative of a man who San Jose police say shot four family members to death before taking his own life had been upset his wife was able to get visas for her relative to travel from Vietnam to the United States.
To Van Khuat said that 66-year-old Chi Dinh Ta had recently called him and told him he planned to kill his in-laws, who had recently arrived from Asia.
Khuat says Ta was his wife’s cousin.
He didn’t immediately return a call from The Associated Press seeking comment.
Khuat says the Ta’s in-laws were “the nicest people.”
He says the Ta had been seething with jealousy because he was not able to bring his own family from Vietnam.
Police have not identified the gunman or the victims.
Residents in the San Jose neighborhood are shocked at what happened, one neighbor saying she heard gunshots and screams on the night of the shooting.
“I heard screaming, like a lady screaming and then gunshots, then more screaming and another gunshot and then silence,” said neighbor Fatima Jimenez.
Another resident, Lorenz Dumuk, says there was no indication that his neighbor, Ta, who lived with his family in the house on Habbitts Court, was angry about anything.
“It’s one of those neighborhoods where you know he would say hi to his neighbors and they would have talks now and then,” Dumuk said.
Dumuk says the situation and the alleged jealousy over a visa brings up concerns of how people deal with anger.
“You don’t see the anger, you don’t see anything until the anger finally manifests itself into action like this, we don’t get to talk about until the anger becomes destructive,” Dumuk said.