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Laid-off Silicon Valley worker kills three: police

SAN FRANCISCO
Fri Nov 14, 2008 11:27pm EST

SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - A man laid off recently from his job in Silicon Valley shot and killed three people, believed to be former co-workers, at an office park on Friday, police in the ailing U.S. technology hub said.

U.S.

The 47-year-old suspect, identified by police as Jing Wu, was still at large after gunning down two men and a woman shortly before 4 p.m. local time (0000 GMT), Santa Clara, California, police told local media.

Police did not identify the firm, which had employed the suspect, local radio and television reported.

An online business directory listed a man with the suspect's name working at Siport, a semiconductor company at the address of the killings. Siport was not immediately available for comment.

As the U.S. economy has weakened, technology companies have joined the rush to cut costs and lay off workers.

Sun Microsystems, one stalwart of the industry, said on Friday it would cut up to 6,000 jobs, 18 percent of its workforce.

(Reporting by Peter Henderson and Anupreeta Das; Editing by Peter Cooney)



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