Clownifornians still make the bestest horror flicks
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Gunman in Santa suit kills 8, sets home ablaze in L.A. suburb, then shoots self
Mercury News Wire Services
Posted: 12/25/2008 05:40:27 AM PST
A man stinging from a bitter divorce went to his former in-laws' Christmas Eve party dressed as Santa, opened fire and methodically set their Covina house ablaze, killing at least eight people, authorities said Thursday.
The gunman killed himself hours later. Police identified him as Bruce Jeffrey Pardo, 45, a Southern California aerospace industry worker who may have recently lost his job.
At least one and as many as three people who were at the party were missing. Among the dead or missing were the couple who owned the home and their daughter, the former wife of the gunman, police said.
Coroners declined to name any of the dead, whose bodies were found in the ashes of the house, and said some of the remains would need to be identified using dental records.
The frenzied shooting occurred late Wednesday night at a two-story house on a cul-de-sac in Covina, about 22 miles east of Los Angeles. An 8-year-old girl ran to the door to answer Pardo's knock, police said. He shot her in the face, stepped into the house and began to fire indiscriminately with a semi-automatic handgun.
People who escaped the house got out by smashing through glass and jumping out of windows. One woman broke an ankle when she leapt from a second-floor window.
Police said Pardo later killed himself with a single gunshot to the head at his brother's home in Sylmar, a community in Los Angeles about 40 miles from the house in Covina.
Pardo had
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no criminal record and no history of violence, police said, but he was angry after last week's divorce settlement from a marriage that lasted barely a year. "It was not an amicable divorce," said Covina police Lt. Pat Buchanan.
Buchanan said Pardo, armed with one or two handguns and fire accelerant, went to the house looking for his former wife, Sylvia. It was unclear whether they had any children.
The house was owned by James and Alicia Ortega, an elderly retired couple who owned a spray-painting business and who often invited their large family over for parties.
Relatives said about 25 people, many of them children, were inside the home when Pardo knocked on the door about 11:30 p.m.
As Pardo unleashed a barrage of gunfire in the living room, relatives smashed through windows, hid behind furniture and bounded upstairs. Then, Pardo sprayed the room with accelerant using a contraption made from two pressurized tanks, one of which held pressurized gas. Within seconds, the house was consumed in fire, with towers of flames shooting into the sky.
Joshua Chavez, 28, of Seattle was visiting his mother's house behind the Ortegas when he heard a loud explosion. "I heard a loud bang and then I saw black smoke and this large flame," he said. Chavez ran out to his backyard and heard three girls trying to climb over his wall.
"There's some guy shooting in there," he said one of the girls told him. "About 20 seconds after that the house was totally on fire."
Police said they could not recall such a horrific crime in Covina, and neighbors said they never would have imagined such a grisly event could take place on their quiet block.
"The fact that he showed up at the party with a Santa outfit puts a sick twist on it," said neighbor Dave Ritchie. "It's such a tragedy."
Robert and Gloria Magcalas lived next door to the Ortegas for 11 years. Their own home was barely spared from the flames. "They were a big loving family," Gloria Magcalas said Thursday. "We usually exchanged gifts with them today. They gave us tamales and cookies every Christmas."
Police said they found two handguns in the ruins, and two pistols at the scene of Pardo's apparent suicide. Investigators also were searching Pardo's home in Montrose, near Glendale.
Officials said they would continue to search the crime scene today for information about the identities of the dead.
The New York Times, Los Angeles Times, The Associated Press and Los Angeles News Group |
