Gunman in California Murder-Suicide Born in Atlanta

Family and friends are still trying to fathom why a Los Angeles man shot and killed his five children and wife before turning the gun on himself early Tuesday morning.

Authorities said that Ervin Lupoe, who along with his wife, Ana, had recently been fired from Kaiser Permanente Medical Center West Los Angeles, killed his wife and kids out of despair.

In a note faxed to a Los Angeles television station, Lupoe claimed that prior to the firing, an administrator told the couple they should not have come to work and told them, "You should have blown your brains out,"

Police reported that the victims included two sets of twins and an 8-year-old girl.

Among those attempting to understand the reasoning behind the killings was Lupoe's 83-year-old grandmother, Josephine Lupoe of Atlanta.

According to the grandmother, Lupoe was born in Atlanta, but relocated to Detroit with his parents as a child before moving to California.

The shootings were the fifth mass death of a Southern California family by murder or suicide in less than a year.