What's your take on the tragedy in San Francisco?

A man owns a house, works, has two cars, a wife, and two young kids—according to the news reports. Then he murders them all before killing himself. Is this even remotely normal? What could possibly drive someone to such an act? Can a psychological breakdown or a financial crisis really be enough reason to wipe out an entire family and then commit suicide? I can't wrap my head around the logic required to commit a crime like this. I’ve read that in the US, people kill their families and themselves when both spouses lose their jobs or go bankrupt, but I find that hard to believe. Is pride really so overwhelming that they'd rather die than ask for help? Regardless, the children are completely innocent here.

It’s quite simple, really—having intelligence alone isn't enough to keep a person mentally sound and balanced.

I suppose that unconscious laughter eventually comes back to haunt us, almost like a boomerang.

The human brain remains the least understood part of our anatomy.
The human psyche? Even less so.
I was reading a piece where they asked for input from that renowned neuropsychiatrist out of San Francisco, Dr. Urlić—who noted, more or less, that everyone obsesses over the drop that overflows the glass, yet nobody stops to consider how the glass got filled in the first place...

Let's look at the kids first—they’re healthy, doing great, and everything seems totally fine on that front. Financially, things are actually pretty solid since there are two high incomes in the house, plus the parents have their Social Security checks coming in from years of working in the States. He’s well-respected in the community too; he stays active with sports and even does some officiating on the side. On paper, it looks like an absolute dream life, but clearly, things weren't clicking for him internally. As for why? Maybe it was the war, or maybe he was dealing with PTSD—I don't have all the specifics on where he was deployed or how long he was out there, but it just feels a bit off. And then there's the marriage; I honestly can't say if things were rocky at home or if there was someone else involved, who knows really?🤷Regarding his health, apparently he had been feeling under the weather lately, but I just can't wrap my head around why anyone would resort to such violence over being sick.😕🤷

And does anyone actually know how many credits they had left... 🤷

I honestly doubt that material status even carries the same weight here; I mean, you could probably spend forever just guessing at what the real reasons actually are

Anger, pure frustration...

I honestly feel like PTSD gets pushed way too hard in the media lately

My hometown was under siege for three years, while I spent three years living as a refugee

And if you ask me, the people who actually stayed and fought were more mentally stable than those of us stuck in refugee camps😁

What I’m getting at is that everyone processes things differently... take that tragedy back in San Francisco... until just yesterday, we used to laugh off tragedies happening in the West, thinking something like that could never happen here... it's all about alienation—that feeling of being totally disconnected from society... driven by capitalism and the media machine

Look, money isn't a universal fix for everything.

Lawrence Booth2 said:I honestly feel like PTSD gets pushed way too hard in the media lately

My hometown was under siege for three years, while I spent three years living as a refugee

And if you ask me, the people who actually stayed and fought were more mentally stable than those of us stuck in refugee camps😁

What I’m getting at is that everyone processes things differently... take that tragedy back in San Francisco... until just yesterday, we used to laugh off tragedies happening in the West, thinking something like that could never happen here... it's all about alienation—that feeling of being totally disconnected from society... driven by capitalism and the media machine

I totally agree with you there. My commanding officer in the military was a veteran who had survived a concentration camp, and he was genuinely one of the kindest, most reliable people I ever knew—he never raised his voice or anything like that. I also met some construction workers who were former camp survivors, and they were incredibly calm and composed, honestly much more level-headed than a lot of folks I've run into in cities like New York or Chicago.☕

Tragedies... they've always been around, even before any major conflicts broke out, we just weren't kept in the loop quite like we are today. I remember reading about this one case where a father went after his wife and kids with a knife, tried to take himself out too, but somehow he survived. Back then, people didn't really deal with bankruptcy as a concept, and there was no war to blame things on... so it was always these quiet, unassuming families, and then we all act shocked and go looking for reasons why. It's human nature, I guess, to try and pin a motive on it that makes sense to us—just a way to shift the responsibility elsewhere—but when you actually step back and look at the big picture, we're all complicit in these tragedies. It starts right at home with that mindset of "my house is huge, I've got two cars, two parking spots"... that's the sickness right there.

Who actually knows what was going on inside that man’s head, hidden away from everyone else? From the public eye? We all carry our own baggage—personal issues we never talk about, just tucked away somewhere deep inside us. Sometimes we don't even realize they're there. The human psyche is just this massive, dark, deep, and mysterious lake, with who knows how many monstrous Nessies lurking beneath the surface 😁
Honestly, cases like this fascinate me. I don't think anyone—not the experts, not science—actually has an answer for the "WHY" behind it all.
His blood pressure spiked and he just lost his grip on reality 🤷 It's probably because of this heatwave...

I was actually just thinking about this myself. My first thought is that the initial point focuses entirely on material wealth. In a society where money is treated as Bog and the absolute center of everything, the soul simply withers away.

Kyle Lee7 said:I was actually just thinking about this myself. My first thought is that the initial point focuses entirely on material wealth. In a society where money is treated as Bog and the absolute center of everything, the soul simply withers away.

👍

Either he was suffering from auditory hallucinations—perhaps due to severe illness, especially since he lived in an area where seeking mental health support is still viewed as a massive stigma—or he was drowning in crushing debt. I really don't think this was about some vendetta or trying to "settle the score" with his wife.

To me, the whole thing points more toward those "voices." It’s as if they were commanding him to act, telling him that for whatever "reason," he needed to urgently move himself and his family to the great beyond.

Only he knows the truth. Only he knew what kind of darkness was piling up inside him. I find it hard to buy the whole "hearing voices" thing—the idea that he was experiencing a severe psychotic break—because if that were actually the case, we probably would have seen signs much earlier. And I guess you can't just blame it on combat trauma either; plenty of veterans have been through hell without snapping like this.

If he were still alive, maybe experts could finally pin down a cause, though even then, I suspect they’d just end up arguing with different theories. As it stands, we’re all just left guessing.

I honestly can't wrap my head around what drives a person to take their own child's life. It's just incomprehensible. 😢

Jerry Martinez5 said:Only he knows the truth. Only he knew what kind of darkness was piling up inside him. I find it hard to buy the whole "hearing voices" thing—the idea that he was experiencing a severe psychotic break—because if that were actually the case, we probably would have seen signs much earlier. And I guess you can't just blame it on combat trauma either; plenty of veterans have been through hell without snapping like this.

If he were still alive, maybe experts could finally pin down a cause, though even then, I suspect they’d just end up arguing with different theories. As it stands, we’re all just left guessing.

I honestly can't wrap my head around what drives a person to take their own child's life. It's just incomprehensible. 😢

Exactly, it just seems like his military service story doesn't quite add up, making his entire background feel pretty questionable.

Jerry Martinez5 said:Only he knows the truth. Only he knew what kind of darkness was piling up inside him. I find it hard to buy the whole "hearing voices" thing—the idea that he was experiencing a severe psychotic break—because if that were actually the case, we probably would have seen signs much earlier. And I guess you can't just blame it on combat trauma either; plenty of veterans have been through hell without snapping like this.

If he were still alive, maybe experts could finally pin down a cause, though even then, I suspect they’d just end up arguing with different theories. As it stands, we’re all just left guessing.

I honestly can't wrap my head around what drives a person to take their own child's life. It's just incomprehensible. 😢

And how exactly would anyone have known earlier if he didn't tell a soul? Honestly, shame on you for assuming that.
🤷

If we rule out mental illness, then we’re left with the implication that his actions were a calculated, rational choice.
Do you truly believe it's possible for such an act to be the result of a perfectly sound decision?
Is that the kind of thing people with impaired judgment actually pull off? 😁

You have a point; war alone doesn't justify an action like this, especially during peacetime.

It would certainly be enlightening to get a look at his private journals or transcripts. 🤷

slypuma17 said:And how exactly would anyone have known earlier if he didn't tell a soul? Honestly, shame on you for assuming that.
🤷

If we rule out mental illness, then we’re left with the implication that his actions were a calculated, rational choice.
Do you truly believe it's possible for such an act to be the result of a perfectly sound decision?
Is that the kind of thing people with impaired judgment actually pull off? 😁

You have a point; war alone doesn't justify an action like this, especially during peacetime.

It would certainly be enlightening to get a look at his private journals or transcripts. 🤷

not really🤣

I guess I misspoke. My bad. I've talked about this quite a bit with people who actually know their stuff, and I accepted the explanation: if the guy was in a full-blown psychosis (ha, someone here recently gave me a lecture on what qualifies as a psychosis 🤣), he wouldn't have been able to hide it for long. In that sense, I meant he wasn't severely mentally ill.

But it's obvious he was completely unhinged at that moment.

Still, my understanding doesn't come anywhere close to explaining that act. I can understand a jealous husband killing his wife and her lover in the act. I can get the motives behind someone like OJ Simpson. Any abused woman who snaps and commits a crime—I think I can roughly feel the desperation of other criminals who do something horrific when they finally hit their breaking point. But not this. 😢

slypuma17 said:And how exactly would anyone have known earlier if he didn't tell a soul? Honestly, shame on you for assuming that.
🤷

If we rule out mental illness, then we’re left with the implication that his actions were a calculated, rational choice.
Do you truly believe it's possible for such an act to be the result of a perfectly sound decision?
Is that the kind of thing people with impaired judgment actually pull off? 😁

You have a point; war alone doesn't justify an action like this, especially during peacetime.

It would certainly be enlightening to get a look at his private journals or transcripts. 🤷

I am not entirely convinced that war alone isn't enough. I believe that being placed in a location and a time where all human dignity and moral rules cease to exist—where you witness horrors like mass killings for extended periods—fundamentally alters one's perception of life. It is something very few psychotherapies can actually resolve. This isn't just an individual question of a "mental disorder"; it’s about having been there and witnessing absolute chaos, seeing someone brutally tortured simply because of an ethnic label attached to their name. You were present when a person was massacred just to steal a gold bracelet.

And then, from that mental state, you are expected to reintegrate into the moral order of a peaceful society? Good luck with that.

In my view, certain consequences remain for life, whether one is formally diagnosed with PTSD or not.
It is entirely possible for one's entire value system to be completely dismantled. Your sense of identity might shatter, likely reaching a point where you can no longer distinguish yourself from your surroundings... add to that the poor social support for veterans here in the US, the lack of understanding from the general public, and the situation has the potential to end exactly how it ends every five days in our national news; yes, frustrated by long-term societal neglect, a man picks up a gun and delivers judgment upon himself and "his own."

Since we aren't talking about a domestic dispute here, and he killed children as well—I don't believe he did this out of pure malice, but rather out of a distorted sense of possessiveness. In a moment of ultimate fury toward the world, he probably can no longer distinguish his own existence from theirs; if he is leaving "this hellish world," then "his people won't stay either"—that is likely the logic at play. Beyond the fact that he is reacting impulsively in the moment, the moral categories that would normally signal that his planned actions are wrong were likely shattered during the war long ago; the question is whether he even possesses them in the way a "normal" person does.

What I fail to understand is why this country does nothing regarding this issue.
It is one thing when such a tragedy occurs once or twice—that is an individual problem. But when similar headlines appear every five days, it becomes a systemic social crisis. Why on earth don't they sit down and establish a social support system for these individuals, along with a social work framework designed to provide regular monitoring...