Suspected Santa gunman takes life; 3 others dead

[Walter Cronkite]

Bruce Jeffery Pardo was sought for a Christmas party shooting before taking his own life, police said.

The prime suspect in a Christmas Eve shooting and fire that left at least three people dead in a Los Angeles suburb has committed suicide, police said Thursday.

Authorities had been searching for Bruce Jeffery Pardo, 45, after a man dressed as Santa Claus showed up and started shooting at a party at a house in Covina, California.

Pardo's body was discovered at a relative's home in the nearby suburb of Sylmar, and authorities have made a positive identification, said Lt. Pat Buchanan of the Covina Police Department. Buchanan said Pardo was the prime suspect in the Christmas Eve shooting.

Police believe the residence where the shootings occurred belongs to another of Pardo's relatives, Buchanan said. The house was burning when police arrived.

Three people were found dead inside. Police have not said how they died or released their identities.

An 8-year-old girl and a woman in her 20s were hospitalized with gunshot wounds that authorities do not consider life-threatening.

Crews took a third person to a hospital with an injury that wasn't life-threatening and wasn't caused by gunfire, said police in Covina, a city about 20 miles east of downtown Los Angeles.

The shooting started around 11:30 p.m. Wednesday.

"There was some source of ignition that caused the fire," Buchanan said. "We've not been able to identify it yet."
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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.

Source: CNN

[Kellie-Girl]

Good Lord...

[Modern Arts]

[Summer Rain]

[The Real]

My home girl lives in LA., and she told me the details came out on the evening news. It's really pretty awful. Six confirmed dead, nine missing and unaccounted for. Guy shot several people, including a little girl who answered the door - then he lit off a homemade flamethrower and torched the place, fled, killed himself.

They are saying it is the worst crime in Covina's history.

[Sodomy]

So does this qualify as a "Santa Rampage"?
Bad Santa?
The Nightmare before Christmas?
Silent Night, Deadly Night?
Santa's Slay?
Santa's now giving out lumps of lead instead of coal?

Too soon?

[Walter Cronkite]

UPDATE

After shooting several people at the home of his former in-laws, police say Bruce Jeffrey Pardo, still dressed as Santa Claus, sprayed gasoline throughout the home intending to set it on fire.

But his plan went awry.

The home exploded, windows were blown out, and part of Pardo's Santa suit melted onto his skin.

He suffered third-degree burns.

That's why police say he decided to kill himself rather than use the airline ticket to Canada that was in his pocket.

Pardo killed nine people, police said. Three others were injured, including an 8-year-old. A 16-year-old girl was wounded by gunfire and was hospitalized with non-life-threatening injuries, police said. A woman who jumped out a second-floor window broke her leg and was hospitalized. None of the victims has been identified.

Police said Pardo showed up at the home dressed as Santa and had $17,000 cling-wrapped to his legs and inside a girdle.

He knocked on the door. And when the 8-year-old ran to greet him, he shot her in the face.

Terrified people inside the home called 911.

"Stay away from the window!" a woman can be heard pleading, "Please come immediately ... he's shooting! He's shooting!"

Some fled the house any way they could. Others sought shelter inside, some ducking under the dining room table, one witness said.

Pardo was targeting his ex-wife's family, police said, shooting some of them "execution-style."

Afterward, he prepared to set the home on fire using a homemade device designed to spread fuel.

After the home exploded, Pardo removed his Santa suit, put on street clothes and began to knock out lights in the area as he fled the scene, according to a witness on a recording of a 911 call.

Pardo fled to his brother's home in nearby Sylmar, California, police said. When Pardo realized his brother wasn't home, he broke in and eventually shot himself to death, police said.

Police later found his rental car with the remnants of the Santa suit on the seat. It was rigged to explode if the costume was removed.

During a search of Pardo's home in Montrose, California, police found five empty boxes for semiautomatic handguns, two high-powered shotguns and a container of "racing fuel." Police said they recovered four handguns at various locations.

Investigators have yet to identify the charred remains recovered from the burned house.

Ed Winter, assistant chief Los Angeles County coroner, said the intense fire caused the top floor of the two-story house to collapse.

Winter said the bodies were "severely burned and charred," and dental and medical records and X-rays will be used to establish identities.

Police said they have not accounted for Pardo's ex-mother-in-law, ex-father-in-law and ex-wife.

Police suggested marital problems as a motive for the attack and said Pardo and his wife of one year settled a contentious divorce last week.

Covina Police Chief Kim Raney said Pardo's former in-laws regularly have a party Christmas Eve and that one neighbor always arrives dressed as Santa.

This year that neighbor was away, police said.

Source: CNN