Gawker: valleywag, siport shooting

Murdered HR manager was a classic Valley workaholic

Paul Boutin — Mon, 17 Nov 2008 11:11:14 EST

Today's Chronicle mourns the three victims of an angry coworker at SiPort, the previously obscure vendor of radio chips in Santa Clara. No surprise that CEO Sid Agrawal is remembered as a "Renaissance man," and VP of operations Brian Pugh as a "brilliant engineer." But most touching to me is the story of 67-year-old Marilyn Lewis, the HR manager gunned down by 47-year-old engineer and father of three Jing Hua Wu, because she had handled his firing that morning.

Human resources is one of the most disrespected jobs in tech. Yet Lewis's two daughters told the Chron that a few years ago, their mom told them she wanted to take a Hawaiian cruise with them. Taking a week off was so out of character for Lewis that her children feared she'd been diagnosed with a fatal disease. That's how much Marilyn Lewis loved her job. In HR. At a tech company. My kind of lady. Is there anything good we can pull out of this bloody mess? I guess it's: Take the cruise.

SiPort investor says killer was fired, no layoff

Paul Boutin — Sun, 16 Nov 2008 22:52:41 EST

News reports on the SiPort triple murder Friday afternoon seemed to imply that alleged killer Jing Wu had been laid off from the company. But a spokesperson for Morganthaler Ventures, one of SiPort's investors, emailed GigaOm writer Om Malik. The anonymized mouthpiece claims SiPort had no layoffs — Jing Wu was personally terminated.

SiPort has never had a general layoff at the company and in fact, the company added to its staff in 2008. SiPort started shipping their HD Radio chips earlier this year and the customers seem to really like it. We were not laying people off.

SiPort shooter arrested

Paul Boutin — Sat, 15 Nov 2008 19:53:11 EST

Jing Wu, accused of shooting three coworkers to death after a layoff, was arrested this morning at the intersection of El Camino Real and Grant Road in Mountain View. His third victim has been identified as SiPort HR head Marilyn Lewis. The Chronicle has more details. (Photo by San Francisco Chronicle/Lance Iversen)

Man kills SiPort CEO, two others after layoff

Paul Boutin — Sat, 15 Nov 2008 01:49:40 EST

Jing Wu (in photo), 47, of Mountain View, shot and killed one woman and two men inside a Silicon Valley office building just before 4:00 P.M. Friday, according to Santa Clara police. Wu had recently been laid off from SiPort, a fabless digital radio semiconductor company in Mountain View. SiPort CEO Sid Agrawal and VP of Operations Brian Pugh have been confirmed dead. Police are withholding the woman's name until her next of kin have been notified. Wu remains at large Friday night, and police warned that he should be considered armed and extremely dangerous. Ongoing coverage: San Francisco Chronicle / San Jose Mercury News. (Photo courtesy Santa Clara Police Department)