SiPort is grappling with three deaths this morning, after a fired employee shot and killed three of the fabless start-ups top executives.

Jing Hua Wu, described as an unassuming engineer and family man in many of the reports that have now covered the incident, was arrested over the weekend for allegedly killing SiPort's CEO Sid Agrawal, VP of operations Brian Pugh, and HR manager Marilyn Lewis. (I'm using "allegedly" lightly there and only in the necessary sense. Despite several quoted witness' accounts, Wu has yet to go to trial.)

According to reports, Wu had been a test engineer at SiPort for less than two years and had been fired on Friday morning because of poor performance. He left the building after being let go, returned and requested a meeting with the three execs, and then in the meeting opened fire with a 9-mm handgun, reports state.

SiPort designs mixed-signal RF and digital baseband wireless receiver chips, was established in 2004, and began shipping chips just last month. The company has offered its condolences to the victims' families and friends, as well as to its "close-knit" employees. My condolences also go out to the families and friends of the victims and to SiPort's employees.

Wu's defense, like many news reports out there, will likely point out that the semiconductor industry has become a very stressful work environment. When you consider that cuts are coming left and right to jobs and R&D, corporate scandals have come like plagues in recent years, and engineers are among the most undervalued members of the US workforce, and it's easy to become angry and depressed (heck, I'm angry and depressed and I only report on the industry).

Am I suggesting that if Wu "snapped" the crime is any less heinous than murder ever is? No, absolutely not. But the snapped argument is surely one Wu's dense will bring to the table.

Stress is no excuse for this. Agrawal, Pugh, and Lewis leave behind spouses and children and friends that will mourn their losses and this crime is monstrous. Reports state that he has no personal or family history of mental illness, so that argument will most likely be minimalized by any half-descent prosecutor

If Wu is convicted, he should get the max jail time possible in California for a triple homicide.Your comments on the event are welcomed below.