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November 17, 2008
Stated Clerk asks for prayer for moderator’s family in wake of brother-in-law’s death
Brian Pugh one of three killed in Silicon Valley workplace shooting
LOUISVILLE — Presbyterians have been asked to pray for the family of General Assembly Moderator Bruce Reyes-Chow after his wife’s brother was killed in a workplace shooting Friday (Nov. 14) in California’s Silicon Valley.
Brian Pugh, Reyes-Chow’s brother-in-law, was one of three employees of SiPort — a small Santa Clara, CA semiconductor start-up firm — who was shot and killed by Jing Hua Wu, 47, who was recently laid off by the company.
Pugh was vice-president for operations of SiPort.
The Rev. Gradye Parsons, Stated Clerk of the General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A), issued the following statement shortly after the shootings:
It is sad and shocking news to learn of the death of Brian Pugh, the brother of Robin Pugh, who is married to Bruce Reyes-Chow, Moderator of the 218th General Assembly (2008). Brian was one of three shooting victims in his work place yesterday (Friday) in Santa Clara, CA.
Such a senseless, violent act grieves the heart of God as surely as it does ours.
Please join me in prayer for Robin, Bruce, their entire family, and the other victims’ families as they walk through these very difficult days ahead.
May the grace and comfort of our Lord Jesus Christ be with us all.
According to a SiPort biography, Pugh is listed as having 25 years of experience in semiconductor operations. He attended the University of California-Berkeley and Stanford University and had previously worked at Samsung and IBM..
"It's certainly a tragedy any time someone feels like this is an action they have to take," Santa Clara Police Chief Stephen Lodge told the San Jose Mercury-News. "These are truly innocent people whose lives were taken. It's just not right."
According to a national study on workplace violence, such crimes account for 20 percent of all violent crime. An average of 500 homicides occur in U.S. workplaces each year.
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