San Jose man killed 4 in rage over visas before turning gun on himself, family member says

A man who police in San Jose say shot and killed four family members before turning the gun on himself had been upset that his wife was able to get visas for her relatives to travel from Vietnam to the United States, a relative of the man said.

To Van Khuat told the Mercury News that 66-year-old Chi Dinh Ta had called him and told that him he planned to kill his in-laws, who had recently arrived from Asia.

“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 told the newspaper.

Khuat says Ta was his wife’s cousin. He didn’t immediately return a call from the Associated Press seeking further comment.

Khuat said Ta’s in-laws were “the nicest people,” but that Ta had been seething with jealousy because he was not able to bring his own family from Vietnam.

Authorities have not identified the gunman or the victims.

Officers responded about 8:40 p.m. Sunday to multiple calls about a shooting in a neighborhood near the Santa Clara County fairgrounds, said Sgt. Enrique Garcia, a spokesman for the San Jose Police Department.

Police used an armored vehicle to remove two injured people from the home. A man and a woman, each suffering from at least one gunshot wound, were taken to a hospital, where they later died, Garcia said.

The entire street was evacuated while SWAT officers and negotiators tried to contact the suspected shooter and determine whether anyone else was inside. Investigators suspect the gunman shot four people — three women and one man — before turning the gun on himself, Garcia said.

Officers entered the home at about 1:25 a.m., nearly five hours after the first 911 call came in, and found three people, including the gunman, with gunshot wounds. They were pronounced dead at the scene.

Times staff writer Hannah Fry contributed to this report.