Covina massacre

Covina massacre
Bruce Jeffrey Pardo
Location	Covina, Los Angeles County, California, United States
Date	Wednesday, December 24, 2008 11:30 p.m. (UTC-8)
Target	Ex-wife/family
Attack type	Mass murder, murder-suicide, massacre, torching
Weapon(s)	Four semi-automatic handguns, homemade flamethrower
Death(s)	10 (including the perpetrator)
Injured	3
Perpetrator(s)	Bruce Jeffrey Pardo

The Covina massacre occurred on December 24, 2008, in Covina, a city in the suburbs of Los Angeles, California, United States. Nine people ^[1] were killed from either gunshot wounds or an arson fire inside a house on 1129 East Knollcrest Drive where a Christmas Eve party was being held.^[2] The perpetrator, 45-year-old Bruce Jeffrey Pardo, who entered the house while wearing a Santa suit, committed suicide from a gunshot wound to the head at his brother's residence in the early morning hours after the attack. Authorities have cited marital problems as a possible motive for the violence; reports indicate Pardo's divorce had been finalized December 18, one week prior to the massacre.^[3] Three people, including Pardo's ex-wife and his former in-laws, were initially declared missing pending identification of their bodies.^[4]

Attack

At approximately 11:30 p.m. PST, Bruce Jeffrey Pardo, dressed in a Santa Claus suit, knocked on the door of his former in-laws' house, occupied with about 25 people, with a gift-wrapped package (containing a homemade flamethrower) in one hand and a semi-automatic handgun in the other hand; he also had three additional semi-automatic handguns in his possession. When the door opened, Pardo fired the handgun at the eight-year-old daughter of Leticia Yuzefpolsky, a sister of Sylvia Pardo,^[5] as she ran to greet him, injuring her in the face. He then fired indiscriminately at fleeing partygoers. Police speculate that Pardo may have stood over and pointedly executed some of the victims, using the other handguns.^[6] After the shootings, Pardo unwrapped the package containing the homemade flamethrower, and used it to spray racing fuel gasoline to set the home ablaze.^[7][8] Nine people died from either gunfire or flames, and three others were wounded: the eight-year-old girl who was shot in the face with severe but non-life-threatening injuries, a 16-year-old girl shot and wounded in the back, and a 20-year-old woman who suffered a broken ankle jumping out of the second-floor window.^[8][9] There was one survivor who called the authorities during the attack after escaping to a neighbor's house.^[10] The resulting fire soared approximately 40 to 50 feet and took 80 firefighters an hour-and-a-half to extinguish. Due to the intensity of the fire, identification of the victims were done with dental and medical records.

After the attack, Pardo put on his street clothes and drove his Dodge Caliber rental car to his brother's house in Sylmar, approximately 30 miles away from the crime scene, where he was later found dead from a self-inflicted gunshot wound.^[6] His brother was not present in the home at the time of Pardo's death.^[8] It was initially believed that Pardo intended to flee to Canada by plane as he had bought an airline ticket to a flight on Air Canada; however, subsequently it was discovered the flight was from Los Angeles to Moline, Illinois (with a layover in Minnesota). Pardo had called days before to tell his high school friend that he was planning to visit, but investigators are unsure if he intended to visit or if the flight was to fool investigators.^[11] He had visited the friend before in October 2008.

However, due to suffering from severe third-degree burns on his arms stemming from the blaze, he decided to go against the initial plan.^[6][8] Police found $17,000 in cash cling-wrapped on his legs inside a girdle, and his rental car that had been parked one block from his brother's house, which had been rigged by remnants of his Santa suit that would ignite a flame and detonate the car with black powder if removed. Also recovered from the scene were four 13-round capacity handguns that were each empty, and at least 200 rounds of ammunition.^[6] Suggesting that what had been inside the car was being treated as a threat, a bomb squad fired an incendiary device into it, destroying and burning it.^[9] At Pardo's house in Montrose, police had recovered five empty boxes for semi-automatic handguns, two shotguns, and a container for high octane fuel tank gasoline.^[8]

Fatalities

At least three victims' deaths were caused by gunshot wounds alone, while four others died from a combination of both gunshot wounds and fire; two other deaths stemmed from the fire alone.^[12] The victims include:

Name	Age	Notes
Sylvia Ortega Pardo	43	Bruce Jeffrey Pardo's ex-wife
Alicia Sotomayor Ortega	70	Sylvia Pardo's mother
Joseph S. Ortega	80	Sylvia Pardo's father
Charles Ortega	49	Sylvia Pardo's brother
Cheri Lynn Ortega	45	Charles Ortega's wife
James Ortega	51	Sylvia Pardo's brother
Teresa Ortega	52	James Ortega's wife
Alicia Ortega Ortiz	46	Sylvia Pardo's sister
Michael Andre Ortiz	17	Alicia Ortiz's son

Motive

Police speculate that the motive of the attack was related to marital problems. Pardo's wife of one year had settled for divorce in the prior week.^[8] However, Pardo held no criminal record and had no history of violence. He had been fired from his job as an electrical engineer at ITT Electronic Systems Radar Systems in July.^[3] There is some speculation that the divorce may have been caused by Pardo concealing a child from a previous relationship. This child was severely injured in a swimming pool accident several years previous.

The couple wed on January 2006, but soon grew apart after their marriage, when Mr. Pardo refused to open a joint account with Mrs. Pardo; he also expected Mrs. Pardo to take care of her own three children with her own finances.^[13]

In June 2008, divorce court had ordered Bruce Pardo to pay $1,785 a month in spousal support. During the divorce proceeding, Bruce had confided to a friend his wife was "taking him to the cleaners." In July, Mr. Pardo was fired for billing false hours and the court suspended the payments due to job hardship.^[14]

It was revealed that he had planned to kill his own mother after the massacre at Sylvia's home due to her apparent sympathy for Sylvia during the divorce proceedings.^[15]

Pardo was required to pay Sylvia $10,000 as part of the divorce settlement, according to court documents. Sylvia kept the wedding ring and the family dog. In a court declaration, Pardo complained that Sylvia was living with her parents, not paying rent, and had spent lavishly on a luxury car, gambling trips to Las Vegas, meals at fine restaurants, massages, and golf lessons.^[16]

Popular culture

Poly Styrene, the lead singer of X-Ray Spex, recorded a song in 2010 called "Black Christmas" which contains references to the massacre.

See also

• List of massacres in California

References

1. ^ Frank Girardot's Crime Scene blog
2. ^ Moore, Solomon; O'Connor, Anahad (2008-12-26). "9th Body Found in California Attack". The New York Times. http://www.nytimes.com/2008/12/27/us/27shooting.html?ref=us. Retrieved 2010-04-30. 
3. ^ ^{a b} "Santa gunman was in bitter divorce, lost job". Associated Press. 2008-12-26. http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20081227/ap_on_re_us/santa_shooting. 
4. ^ "At least 6 dead in Christmas Eve shooting". San Francisco Chronicle. 2008-12-25. http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/n/a/2008/12/25/state/n043824S10.DTL&tsp=1. ^{[dead link]}
5. ^ "Santa" Gunman Planned to Escape to Canada, Police Say, NBC (December 26, 2008)
6. ^ ^{a b c d} Abdollah, Tami; Bloomekatz, Ari B.; Becerra, Hector (2008-12-26). "Covina gunman planned to flee the country, police say". Los Angeles Times. http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-santa-shooting27-2008dec27,0,7291873.story. 
7. ^ "Cops: Suspect in Santa massacre had planned to flee". CNN. 2008-12-26. http://www.cnn.com/2008/CRIME/12/25/santa.shooting/index.html?iref=mpstoryview. Retrieved 2010-04-30. 
8. ^ ^{a b c d e f} "Suspected Santa gunman takes life; 8 others dead". CNN. 2008-12-26. http://www.cnn.com/2008/CRIME/12/25/santa.shooting/index.html?iref=mpstoryview. Retrieved 2010-04-30. 
9. ^ ^{a b} "'Santa' Gunman Intended to Flee to Canada, Killed Self After Suffering Burns". FoxNews. 2008-12-26. http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,473024,00.html. 
10. ^ Covina, California (2008-12-28). "Emergency call reveals terror of 'Santa' gunman's rampage". Melbourne: The Age. http://www.theage.com.au/world/emergency-call-reveals-terror-of-santa-gunmans-rampage-20081227-75vl.html?page=-1. 
11. ^ Abdollah, Tami (2009-07-11). "Inside the mind of a killer 'Santa'". Los Angeles Times. http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-santa11-2009jul11,0,3575623.story. 
12. ^ "Coroner: 2 Christmas Eve Massacre Victims Died in Fire, Not Shooting". KTLA. 2008-01-02. http://www.ktla.com/landing_topstories/?Coroner--2-Christmas-Eve-Massacre-Victim=1&blockID=170714&feedID=1198. 
13. ^ Best Friend Speak out
14. ^ Covina's 'Santa Claus' gunman
15. ^ "Santa killer" Had plans to kill mom
16. ^ Bruce Jeffrey Pardo: 'Santa' Shooter Planned To Flee To Canada

External links

Greater Los Angeles portal

• Covina Holiday Murders - San Gabriel Valley Tribune
• Inside the mind of a killer 'Santa' - Los Angeles Times

Coordinates: 34°04′53″N 117°52′02″W / 34.08139°N 117.86722°W / 34.08139; -117.86722