Man Commits Murder-Suicide In Front Of Diners In Restaurant

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Diners Witness Murder-Suicide

San Jose, California - A murder-suicide played out in front of horrified diners inside a downtown San Jose restaurant early Friday when a man shot a woman to death before turning the gun on himself.

Emergency personnel found the woman dead inside a restaurant in the 300 block of East Santa Clara Street. The man was taken to a nearby hospital in critical condition and died a short time later.

Although investigators spent the day interviewing witnesses and relatives, police representative Enrique Garcia said Friday that they still were trying to ascertain the relationship between the victim and the shooter.

The pair were described as middle-aged. As of Friday afternoon, police had not released their names.

The restaurant, located a block east of the new San Jose City Hall, was closed when the 1:30 a.m. shootings occurred, but several other customers were finishing their meals or having coffee, Garcia said.

The man and woman were apparently customers, because they were seated at a table and did not appear to work at the restaurant, according to police.

Garcia said he did not know if the couple argued or made any statements before the shooting. But he confirmed that the man shot the woman several times before shooting himself once.

Someone left the restaurant and asked a passerby to call police.

Garcia said he would not comment on a television news report that said police found the gun at the scene.

The Vietnamese restaurant, at the northeast corner of Santa Clara and Seventh streets, across from Horace Mann Elementary School, has changed owners several times within the past months. It bears signs with three names: the N-O Aurora Restaurant, the Bac Huong Restaurant and Rang Dong Restaurant, which police believe was the business's current name.

The killing of the woman was San Jose's 11th homicide this year. A recent study on murder-suicides by the Violence Policy Center, a national non-profit organization based in Washington, D.C., found most cases involve spouses or intimate partners.

The study found 94 percent of murder-suicides are committed by men, according to a report from the Violence Policy Center, a research and advocacy group that examined 264 murder-suicides reported nationwide in the first half of last year.