San Jose’s Horrific Quadruple Murder-Suicide Prompts Call for Domestic Violence Interventions

Police say it’s one of the most violent crimes in San Jose history.

A man reportedly jealous that his wife could sponsor family to travel from Vietnam murdered four relatives before taking his own life early Monday morning.

Authorities say 66-year-old Chi Dinh Ta used a black Springfield XD 9mm semiautomatic handgun reported stolen in Tuscon, Arizona, two years ago. How he obtained the weapon is unclear. Felony convictions dating back to the 1980s for second-degree robbery in Orange County prevented him from owning guns or ammo.

Investigators say Ta had no known history of domestic violence. But a relative told the Mercury News Ta confessed his frustrations with his wife getting to bring her family to the US when he couldn’t do the same for his.

On Tuesday, five female City Council members who have been working to bolster resources to combat violence against women and children, issued a joint statement about the slaying. In their shared remarks, Pam Foley, Dev Davis, Maya Esparza, Sylvia Arenas and Magdalena Carrasco stressed the need for more resources in immigrant communities, where domestic violence and sexual assault often go unreported.

Below is their statement in full.

We send our sincerest condolences to the families of the victims of the recent tragedy that has been described as, one of the deadliest shootings in San Jose history.

Nothing can repair the loss you have experienced. We stand with you, and we are available to assist you and your families in any way possible.

The details of this incident are still under investigation. However, we are aware that three of the victims murdered are women. While we will refrain from arriving at conclusions without the benefit of a full and thorough investigation, we know that incidents like this do not arise overnight. Intimate partner violence is characterized by patterns of behavior that develop over time and result in women and their families being hurt by their male partner.

It is more important than ever that we continue our work to properly fund efforts that serve to hold perpetrators of domestic violence accountable before their actions result in the loss of life.

Crimes like the one that occurred this weekend are only the most extreme examples of the violence that too many women in our community face. Domestic violence, sexual assault, and even human trafficking are often interrelated, and their victims often experience a ramping up to greater violence—too often with tragic final outcomes.

This problem is not unique to San Jose, but as the 10th largest city in the country, San Jose must provide national leadership and must lead the way in modernizing the response we take to address the violence that so many women face. We cannot bury our heads in the sand or pass the buck.

The fact that these problems are societal cannot be an obstacle to action.

Domestic violence and sexual assault are crimes that chronically go unreported—especially in communities of color and in immigrant communities where households may contain family members with many different immigration statuses.

This can be especially true within the Asian-Pacific Islander community.

We encourage every resident of San Jose experiencing violence to be confident in seeking help – whether that help is through Asian Women’s Home, Nextdoor Solutions, the YWCA, or the San Jose Police Department. San Jose does not participate in any ICE investigations or enforcement activity, and you do not have to fear that you or your loved ones will be deported because of coming forward.

At the same time, we call for the city administration to continue and expand on the work we have asked for, in order to identify the determinants of underreporting in San Jose, especially in communities where women are unable to report the actions of these perpetrators of violence against them.

We reiterate our call for action and hope to see an additional response from the city regarding a coordinated response to the problems of domestic violence, sexual assault, and human trafficking.

7 Comments

  1. > Authorities say 66-year-old Chi Dinh Ta used a black Springfield XD 9mm semiautomatic handgun reported stolen in Tuscon, Arizona, two years ago. How he obtained the weapon is unclear. Felony convictions dating back to the 1980s for second-degree robbery in Orange County prevented him from owning guns or ammo.

    Sounds like the “tough gun laws” didn’t work.

    > On Tuesday, five female City Council members who have been working to bolster resources to combat violence against women and children, issued a joint statement about the slaying.

    Shameless, divisive tribalism.

    This is NOT about “women and children”. EVERYONE has the CONSTITUTIONAL right to life and liberty.

    The gender tribalists need to apologize to the male community, and to the adult community for their exclusionary bias.

  2. The blood of these people is squarely on the hands of local politicians and media unwilling to tackle domestic violence in Silicon Valley for the past two decades.

    Jeff Rosen tops the list of failures when it comes to domestic violence. Mr. Rosen covered up domestic violence woven in the life of Audrie Potts when she committed suicide in 2012. Ignoring the domestic violence Audrie was subjected to for years following the divorce of her mother and step father, Mr. Rosen made a young girl’s death about cyber bullying to get re-elected.

    When the 49ers came to town and started beating their girlfriends and raping their dates, Mr. Rosen took donations and favors from the players, and attorney Josh Bentley, only to plea those cases down to misdemeanors of Disturbing the Peace.

    Last month Mr. Rosen’s office prosecuted a woman who had been abused by her spouse based on a false police report. Prior to prosecuting that case, the DA never reviewed the family court file that would have shown the history of abuse. The case was dismissed after clogging our courts for months.

    Santa Clara County divorce lawyers have used domestic violence as a litigation tool to get high asset Silicon Valley lawyers and tech executives out of paying child and spousal support. Family courts have incited more violence and racism as judges pander to these lawyers and do little to protect families seeking help in the local courts.

    Our research shows local judges appointing favored lawyers as minor’s counsel and private judge cases to conceal violence inflicted by the most terrifying and powerful abusers.

    Ironically, as this murder occurred, the Santa Clara County Board of Supervisors had material facts that divorce attorney Bradford Baugh spent 40 years in this community harming innocent children and lying about his military service in Vietnam. Despite this conduct, Mr. Baugh was appointed by Judge Clark to represent children during their parent’s divorce case. Judge Clark sits on the county’s Domestic Violence Council. DAO employee Kasey Halcon and private divorce attorney Nicole Ford ( who never got her clients protected by a DVRO ) also sit on that committee.

    Judge McCracken reportedly just appointed attorney Valerie Houghton to represent children in a divorce case. Ms. Houghton is under criminal indictment for stealing from a senior citizen who was falsely accused of domestic violence while his former spouse was represented by Mr. Bradford Baugh. Odd what Judge McCracken thinks is the best interest of children in this county.

    Most horrifying is that the county has taken billions in state and federal funding to help victims of rape, sexual assault and domestic violence, yet when victims seek assistance, they are told by DA employee Kasey Halcon the most the county can offer is $250 cash aid. The DAO victim claims manager is not available because he is involved in his own divorce case where his spouse alleged domestic violence. Walter Hammon is representing that former DAO employee.

    Our county is failing when it comes to domestic violence. Most of these cases are secreted in family court files, and no media is watching. The court’s Odyssey filing program does not consistently alert the DA, or law enforcement, when the court issues a restraining order in the family court. Judges appear to only selectively assure law enforcement is notified in the CLETs system.

    The Board of Supervisors Ken Yegar, Dave Cortese, Mike Wasserman, Joe Smitian, Cindy Chavez and Susan Ellenberg know that these problems exist and that the county’s Women’s Policy has been a joke. They also know those fancy domestic violence committees led by Kasey Halcon and Nicole Ford rarely make quorum and have done little to protect Santa Clara County residents when it comes to domestic violence.

    • > The Board of Supervisors Ken Yegar, Dave Cortese, Mike Wasserman, Joe Smitian, Cindy Chavez and Susan Ellenberg know that these problems exist and that the county’s Women’s Policy has been a joke.

      How about the county’s Men’s Policy? Is it a joke too?

      And since I’m asking, what the hell IS the county’s Men’s Policy?

      Why does the county have to have BOTH a county Women’s Policy AND a county Men’s policy?

      Why can’t it just have one policy for ALL seventy-two genders?

      How can the county assure equal protection for genders if it has different policies for different genders?

      • SJOB,

        You want to know what the “Men’s Policy ” is in Santa Clara County? Here it is. The DA’s Office “Domestic Violence Diva”, Rolanda Pierre-Dixon, a personable enough woman to talk to, has instructed police officers that men are always the “primary aggressors” and when in doubt, “arrest the man”.

        This following scenario was put to Ms. Pierre-Dixon at a police training class: If a man and a woman, with a domestic relationship, get into an argument and it spontaneously erupts into a physical altercation, even if the preponderance of the evidence available at the scene when the police arrive, establishes probable cause that the female may have initiated the first physical action, if both parties are injured, should both parties be arrested? Ms. Pierre-Dixon replied, “Don’t make dual arrests, it makes it too difficult to prosecute the man. Arrest the man as the primary aggressor and incorporate the other facts into the police report”. Someone I know still has those quotes in his notes from a class he took years ago. The policy is, when in doubt, arrest the man, the man is always wrong. Blame the DA for not doing something about domestic violence? No policy would have prevented this tragedy. The suspect was a felon with a stolen gun and the woman, if she had resources enough to bring her family over from overseas, she would have had resources to leave him, but instead chose to stay with him.

        While it goes against the conventional wisdom and is certain to be dismissed, and while it doesn’t necessarily apply to this instant case, it is nonetheless true that women physically abuse men just as much as men physically abuse women. The difference is that men are larger, are physically more resilient and can absorb more punishment than can women. When a woman hits a man, she is much less likely to injure him because she is weaker and doesn’t hit as hard. Therefore, domestic violence goes unreported, or unbelieved, when a woman perpetrates it against a man since it too often can’t be corroborated by visible injury because it’s much more difficult for a woman to injure a man. Conversely, women are smaller, more fragile, and cannot absorb the physical trauma the way men can, and men hit harder. A man is then much more likely to injure a woman in an altercation, even if acting in self-defense, so when the police arrive and the woman has visible injuries and the man does not, or his injuries are less pronounced, because she doesn’t hit as hard and he is harder to damage, guess who goes to jail, the man. Domestic violence is disproportionately enforced against the male. It’s nature and the law.

        This wasn’t a failure of the domestic violence laws or DA policy. It was a failure of judgment.

  3. Council member focus on making sure the domestic violence that is actually reported is investigated and Jeff Rosen files charges per victim’s requests. People is going to stop reporting if there is nothing done about the abuse and their aggressors. RECALL JEFF ROSEN!

  4. The county public policy and community agencies are a joke and members of our official corruption club. County agencies do not respond to victims of domestic violence and this includes the DA’ office. Cindy Chavez and he local county agency community solutions engage in employment violations and intimidating tactics when receiving negative reviews from community. This county is highly corrupted because those with the highest duty to act and protect are the biggest criminals, Under LICCARDO’s and Rosen’s time criminality has increased and low and middle income families who has lived here for generations have been push out!

  5. Sounds to me like this was another big win for sanctuary city’s. This guy should have been exported back to where he came from three decades ago for committing felonies. Instead we get to burry 4 more people.

    He used a stolen gun from Tucson, Check and see if Barrack Obama lost it in the Fast and Furious gun selling scam or maybe a dead border patrol agent.

    Nice going Sanctuary City Pin Heads, and leftwing nut job politicians.

    More blood on your hands!

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