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Minnesota Tesla owner and family found dead in home

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We all knew Brian. No one in the club would have suspected this could happen. Those of us who can make it are meeting up to talk about our feelings and do our best to understand (send me a message if want to go). Death is only hard for the living, and this death is really hard on all of us.
Brian was a friendly and funny guy and a Tesla advocate; a welcome member of our community. There was more to his life than Tesla, and I'd love it if the members of TMC would refrain from doing what the media is doing and supposing/conjecturing/theorizing, discussing motives and so forth.
I miss Brian. If you want to do something, pray for friends and surviving family.
 
There was more to his life than Tesla, and I'd love it if the members of TMC would refrain from doing what the media is doing and supposing/conjecturing/theorizing, discussing motives and so forth.
I miss Brian. If you want to do something, pray for friends and surviving family.
Anyone... rich/poor, male/female, old/young... can find themselves in such a dark place where actions such as this seem to be the only option. And you're right, there is very little to be gained by speculation - it won't bring any of them back.

If there is to be any sort of takeaway from this tragedy, it's that we should all be willing to ask 'Are you OK?' when we see or suspect someone is struggling. Because on any other day, your neighbour, sister or coworker could have been Brian.
 
Anyone... rich/poor, male/female, old/young... can find themselves in such a dark place where actions such as this seem to be the only option. And you're right, there is very little to be gained by speculation - it won't bring any of them back.

If there is to be any sort of takeaway from this tragedy, it's that we should all be willing to ask 'Are you OK?' when we see or suspect someone is struggling. Because on any other day, your neighbour, sister or coworker could have been Brian.

Well put beeeerock. Mental illness truly does not discriminate. Good advice to speak up if you suspect anyone could use some help.
 
Sorry, I wish that I could just be sad about what happened, but it wasn't just a suicide. It was a murder/suicide. I grieve more for the ones that he killed and angry that he decided that the only escape from whatever dark place he was in must also included murdering his innocent family.

Yes, I didn't know him but I also didn't know that suicidal co-pilot who slammed his jet carrying all of those innocent men, women and children into the side of a mountain. Or the countless number of other people who decide that it just isn't enough that they take their own lives but must kill others as well in the process. Sorry, but I and others have every right to be angry also.
 
Sorry, I wish that I could just be sad about what happened, but it wasn't just a suicide. It was a murder/suicide. I grieve more for the ones that he killed and angry that he decided that the only escape from whatever dark place he was in must also included murdering his innocent family.

Yes, I didn't know him but I also didn't know that suicidal co-pilot who slammed his jet carrying all of those innocent men, women and children into the side of a mountain. Or the countless number of other people who decide that it just isn't enough that they take their own lives but must kill others as well in the process. Sorry, but I and others have every right to be angry also.

No, you don't, unless you think they were actually cold and "rational" when they did what they did. Otherwise you should simply be sad at the effects of mental illness.
 
Sorry, I wish that I could just be sad about what happened, but it wasn't just a suicide. It was a murder/suicide. I grieve more for the ones that he killed and angry that he decided that the only escape from whatever dark place he was in must also included murdering his innocent family.

Yes, I didn't know him but I also didn't know that suicidal co-pilot who slammed his jet carrying all of those innocent men, women and children into the side of a mountain. Or the countless number of other people who decide that it just isn't enough that they take their own lives but must kill others as well in the process. Sorry, but I and others have every right to be angry also.

It is natural to feel anger. But your anger is borne out of ignorance.
Please, let the family and friends grieve as they attempt to come to terms with this tragedy.
Brian was a loving, generous person. What ever snapped in him, the Brian we knew was the first casualty, his body was the last.
 
My condolences to all of you who have spent time with him and considered him a friend ... impossible to fathom what family and friends are dealing with now. We lost my ex-father-in-law a few years back through suicide. No warning, no depression, no medical diagnosis. He'd called me the week before to discuss a TSLA investment. He was definitely planning a future.

And all I could tell my son, who was devastated over the loss of his grandfather, was 'Your grandfather wouldn't have done this. This is not who he was. He wouldn't have hurt you and everyone else like this. Something snapped in his mind.' And we will never have answers. Nor will you.

Just sad. I'm sorry.
 
Brian-killed-his-innocent-family!

Zythryn, you belittle Archer citing ignorance while calling for empathy. It is tragic that something mentally misfired in this man, but he still committed premeditated murder of four others who had their lives before them. You note that "Brian we knew was the first casualty, his body was the last"-- NO, that is ignorance, the innocent kids he slaughtered are the additional casualty, and the damage he caused to their friends, family, colleagues, and playmates are the lasting damage.

It is a tragic that we don't have a mechanism to deal with this sort of illness, but to suggest we should be silent is misguided. If he didn't succeed in killing himself, we would be hunting him, instead we should grieve for him, and provide silence peace for those he didn't manage to kill? "Not guilty by reason of insanity" still means that others are dead, when they would prefer being very much alive.
 
I'm not sure what the point of bumping a thread that hadn't been commented on in ten days was.

The father in the family owned a Tesla, and apparently many people here considered him a friend. This is a tragic story.

But the rest of the discussion about crime, mental health, etc., while interesting, belongs some place other than a car enthusiast's forum.

I can understand your being angry about the situation. Any rational person would be. But it's likely that all you've accomplished by bumping this thread is causing additional pain to the forum members here who considered Brian a friend. I don't understand why you'd want to do that.
 
Brian-killed-his-innocent-family!

Zythryn, you belittle Archer citing ignorance while calling for empathy. It is tragic that something mentally misfired in this man, but he still committed premeditated murder of four others who had their lives before them. You note that "Brian we knew was the first casualty, his body was the last"-- NO, that is ignorance, the innocent kids he slaughtered are the additional casualty, and the damage he caused to their friends, family, colleagues, and playmates are the lasting damage.

It is a tragic that we don't have a mechanism to deal with this sort of illness, but to suggest we should be silent is misguided. If he didn't succeed in killing himself, we would be hunting him, instead we should grieve for him, and provide silence peace for those he didn't manage to kill? "Not guilty by reason of insanity" still means that others are dead, when they would prefer being very much alive.

It may have been depression or it may have been an act of domestic violence. Hard to tell from the outside. Maybe his wife was going to leave him and he didn't know how to live without her?

My SO is an attorney, but also has a counseling business for domestic violence perpetrators. In some states courts will order people convicted of DV to go through a counseling course to prevent it happening again. Her agency's track record has been very good thus far. One of her counselors lost his daughter and grandchildren when his son-in-law did the murder suicide thing and he has now dedicated his life to trying to turn around as many perpetrators as possible before it gets to the level he had to experience.

Some people are very good at hiding their darkness. Unless a family member comes forward with some details about what was going on in that household, we will never know for sure what triggered the murder suicide. It's a horrible tragedy and my thoughts go out to the remaining family and friends who are directly affected.
 
There was a time not that long ago when I would not have been able to understand why somebody would choose to commit suicide.

But I guess there are medical conditions that could make ones life very, very different compared to what life is like when one is fully healthy.

As I understand it there can also be very serious side affects to many different kinds of western medicines – side affects that can make an already serious depression a lot worse.

But suicide is one thing. Killing your entire family before committing suicide is something entirely different. And I do wonder if there’s something in certain cultures – where (almost) all that counts is one’s personal individual success – that’s part of an explanation here; cultures that are also almost completely void of any kind of public social safety nets, and where anything but personal success actually does come with a certain stigma in a very large part of the public discourse.
 
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But suicide is one thing. Killing your entire family before committing suicide is something entirely different. And I do wonder if there’s something in certain cultures – where (almost) all that counts is one’s personal individual success – that’s part of an explanation here; cultures that are also almost completely void of any kind of public social safety nets, and where anything but personal success actually does come with a certain stigma in a very large part of the public discourse.

I don't know, I'm an American and a strong believer in personal effort leading to success (as, likely, are many MS owners). I can't understand it at all, nor do I think anything in our culture explains it.