I swear I don’t just scan the internet looking for depressing topics to blog about, no matter how it seems. The bad stuff is just more apt to get me typing because it pisses me off I guess.
Seldom am I surprised at just how horrible people can be. I’m pretty desensitized to domestic violence and even mass shootings, but when you mix both along with a dash of Christmas spirit you get a truly despicable act.
Suspected Santa gunman takes life, 6 others dead
LOS ANGELES, California (CNN) — Police said they recovered six bodies from a Los Angeles house where a man dressed as Santa Claus fired gunshots and started a fire Christmas Eve.
Police said the suspect, Bruce Jeffery Pardo, committed suicide after the attack.
Police said three others — Pardo’s mother-in-law, father-in-law and wife — are still unaccounted for.
At a news conference Thursday, police in Covina, California, said Pardo knocked on the door of his in-law’s home, where they were having a Christmas party attended by more than 25 people.
After someone opened the door, an 8-year-old child ran towards the costumed Pardo, and he shot her directly in the face, police said.
The 8-year-old, who survived the attack, is in fair condition at a Los Angeles hospital. Police say the girl does have serious wounds, including an entry wound on the right side of her face, and an exit wound on the left side, indicating the bullet likely pierced straight through her face.
Then, police say, Pardo entered the home, holding a gun in one hand and a wrapped Christmas package containing a home-made device to spread fire.
Pardo fired indiscriminately as partygoers fled, hid under furniture, threw items to break windows, and in one case, jumped out a second-story window, police said.
A 16-year-old girl was hospitalized with a gun shot wound and another victim, who jumped out the window, was taken to a local hospital, police said.
After the shooting, police believe Pardo set fire to the home. Covina Police Department Lt. Pat Buchanan said the device was “something we have never seen before.”
Covina Police Chief Kim Raney described it as a pressurized tank attached to another tank filled with accelerant.
Raney said after lighting the fire, Pardo changed out of the Santa suit, went to another relative’s home, in the nearby suburb of Sylmar and committed suicide.
Authorities made a positive identification of Pardo’s body, said Buchanan. Police have not released the identities of any of the victims.
Raney said Pardo’s in-laws regularly have a party Christmas Eve and one neighbor always comes by to visit dressed as Santa. This year, that neighbor was away, police said.
Police suggested marital problems as a possible motive for the attack.
Police said they believe Pardo and his wife of one year ended a contentious divorce with a settlement last week.
Authorities said Pardo’s name was given to them by people who were at the party. Pardo was “going through some type of marital problems,” Buchanan said.
According to police, the gunman changed out of the Santa suit and into regular clothes before leaving.
…a god damned flamethrower for fuck’s sake!
Obviously, this asshole was crazy and the behaviors of grossly disturbed individuals can be hard to predict, but it makes the precautions members of my family chose to take to safeguard ourselves from our own crazy relatives seem somewhat less paranoid. Thankfully, we never had to take any action, and I regret that there was no one to save these unfortunate people.
Certainly I mean no criticism or judgment of the group affected by this horror, but it does reinforce the traditional saying “If I am not for myself, then who will be for me? And if I am only for myself, then what am I? And if not now, when?”
Less colorful, but no less appropriate, advice,
“Be polite, be professional, but have a plan to kill everyone you meet.”
