Bad Santa. No, I mean REALLY Bad.

[wolf]

From FoxNews.com

COVINA, California — A man plotting revenge against his ex-wife dressed up like Santa, went to his former in-laws' Christmas Eve party, shot at partygoers and destroyed his former in-laws' house with a homemade device that sprayed flammable liquid, slaughtering at least nine people before killing himself hours later.

Police believe Bruce Pardo, 45, intended to flee to Canada but his Santa suit melted on his body, leaving him with third-degree burns on both arms. Pardo later shot himself at his brother's home, where authorities found $17,000 on him and a plane ticket for a flight from Los Angeles to Canada.

"It was not an amicable divorce."

No kidding.

[Elspode]

I'm still a bit stunned by this one. I'm just glad dude offed himself, saving California 20 years of trials and appeals and motions before bleeding hearts insist that he was merely crazy and therefore not responsible for his murderous, psychopathic actions.

[Sundae]

The first victim was an 8 year old girl, running to open the door for Santa.
Shot in the face.

[morethanpretty]

I believe she's expected to recover.

an 8-year-old girl answered Pardo's knock at the door. Pardo, dressed as Santa and carrying what appeared to be a large present, pulled out a handgun and shot the child in the face. He then began shooting indiscriminately as about 25 partygoers tried to flee, police said at a news conference.
A 16-year-old girl was shot in the back, and a 20-year-old woman broke her ankle when she escaped by jumping from a second-story window. All three are expected to recover.

Article isn't too clear that the "three" includes the 8yr old, I think that was written a bit poorly since the 8yrl old is mentioned in the paragraph before only. They are the only 3 mentioned thus far.

She did survive the shooting. I'll look around for more info on her.

David Salgado, a neighbor, said he saw the 8-year-old victim being escorted to an ambulance by four SWAT team members as flames up to 40 feet high consumed the house.

[wolf]

I heard the 911 call from the 8 year old's mom on the news last night. She and the child apparently fled to another house, and were terrified that Pardo would come after them. The child's wound was relatively minor, and she was described as doing well, physically at least.

That is a screwed up way to find out that Santa isn't real, although I find an amusing sense of justice in his having set fire to himself.

[morethanpretty]

Raney said Pardo fired a shot into the face of an 8-year-old girl who answered the door and at first fired indiscriminately, then apparently targeted relatives of his ex-wife as other guests fled. The girl survived.

From here: http://www.myfoxla.com/myfox/pages/H...d=1.1.1&sflg=1

[piercehawkeye45]

She may recover physically but she will be fucked psychologically for the rest of her life. That's screaming PTSD or something similar.

[xoxoxoBruce]

Pardo later shot himself at his brother's home, where authorities found $17,000 on him and a plane ticket for a flight from Los Angeles to Canada.

After the divorce he still had $17,000 plus money for a plane ticket and a Santa suit? Wonder what he'd have done if he got screwed as much as most.

[morethanpretty]

I have no doubt of that pierce. Not to mention the trauma of seeing friends and family getting killed. I was just making it clear that she will live. Atleast it doesn't seem like she'll have any physical damage to her brain, like his son.
Its so freaky, a guy who seems perfectly stable, just goes psycho like that. You want to hope he was completely insane, although up until that point he was acting sane. You never know, that is scary as hell.

[piercehawkeye45]

He obviously had some mental problem, many people do, but we may never find out what that is. We can do a detailed history of his past but without his input, its very tough to put the pieces together.

Last I heard was 16 children were left orphaned.

[Radar]

A total of 9 died.

Merry Christmas!!!

[Ruminator]

My wife and I sat beside each other in stunned disbelief as the news reporter told the story of the events beginning withe the little 8 yr. old girl answering the door and being shot in the face.
I remember us both turning to look at each other with mortified expressions on our faces.
Its hard to shake the image of a joyful, happy little girl opening the door to Santa...

Some people become "animals", and others go on to become "monsters".

[wolf]

Doing crazy things does not make you crazy.

There was a lot of organized planning that went into this attack. It appears to have been a premeditated revenge crime, with a carefully planned escape. Would have worked, too, if he hadn't accidentally set fire to himself.

Not typical crazy guy stuff.

[DanaC]

An angry aggressive man who couldn't handle losing his woman. If he can't have her, nobody can. That's not crazy, that's just fucked up. Selfish, selfish bastard. Happens all the time, just not usually with a santa suit.

Time after time, I hear on the news about some bloke killing his estranged wife, or ex girlfriend and their kids and then killing himself. Sometimes it's an asian family and the rationale is 'honour', often it isn't an asian family and the rationale is jealousy or anger. It is across the board in all cultures. At its core is an assumption of a 'right' to that woman. She was 'his' and she had the audacity to leave.

Selfish, selfish bastard.

[Radar]

Women kill their children a lot more than men, but when this happens women try to think of excuses for them. They'll say, "She's depressed" or some other such nonsense. Sometimes a man is leaving a marriage and a woman kills herself and the kids so he can't have them.



Andrea Yates, Nicole Waring, Leatrice Brewer, Susan Smith, Michelle Kehoe, Gilberta Estrada, Viviane Gamor, Veronique Courjault, Jeanmarie Tolle Geis, Banita Jacks, Joanne Hill, Hope Orwick, Frances Elaine Campione, etc... all murdered their children.