Posted on 12/27/2008 9:37:19 AM PST by Maelstorm
COVINA, Calif. - A man who carried out a Christmas Eve massacre and arson dressed as Santa at the home of his former in-laws apparently intended to flee the U.S., but his plans were dashed after the inferno he created severely burned his arms and melted his red costume onto his body, police said Friday.
Bruce Jeffrey Pardo, a laid-off aerospace worker, apparently shot some of his nine victims execution-style in a plot to destroy his ex-wife's family after a costly divorce that was finalized last week. He had an airline ticket for a Christmas morning flight to Canada and $17,000 in cash on his body, some attached to his legs with plastic wrap and some in a girdle, Covina police Chief Kim Raney said. He did not know the Canadian destination.
Armed with four guns, wearing the Santa suit and carrying a fuel-spraying device wrapped like a present, Pardo showed up at the home at 11:30 p.m. Wednesday as a party of about 25 people was under way.
Raney said Pardo, 45, 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.
"There's some information that he stood over them and shot them execution-style," Raney said.
Pardo retreated to the front door and retrieved a device that mixed carbon dioxide or oxygen with high-octane racing fuel, police said. Fleeing guests saw him spraying the fuel inside the house when the vapor was ignited, possibly by a pilot light or a candle, and exploded.
"Mr. Pardo was severely injured during that explosion," Raney said. "He suffered third-degree burns on both arms and it also appears that the Santa Claus suit that he was wearing did melt onto his body."
(Excerpt) Read more at startribune.com ...
Lost his job and involved in a "bitter divorce." That certainly explains it for me. He was probably sorry (for himself) as well.
Cute, I'm not excusing his behavior, but it's understandable. If you create enough misery, miserable things are going to happen.
Well it’s the court system of course!
Yes, it's amazing when a person with no criminal record just snaps. What's the reason? Oh, he's just been laid off and has to pay $10,000 to his ex-wife who divorced him.
Adios - you and I are not going to agree on anything.
TRANSLATION: "Whaah, you're mean."
mean?
I don’t know about that.
misogynist?
That seems more like it.
Talk to my mother-in-law about how men always get a raw deal in divorce court - that’ll give her a good laugh.
Just like some blacks with the race card, pull out the gender card.
Talk to my mother-in-law about how men always get a raw deal in divorce court - that’ll give her a good laugh.
She's a rare one indeed.
Could I tell her about the pooe saps who are in jail because they couldn't afford their spousal payments.
Or my friend who lost his house and life savings to a woman who cheated on him.
Pretty please?
both men and women get screwed over all the time.
They don’t become mass murderers.
No one “made” this man do any of this.
Sounds like he was a POS up to the very end by choosing his brother's home as the place to blow his brains out (leaving his brother's family to clean up the bloody mess). And for all their troubles, he didn't even have the decency to stash the $17K in cash in a drawer somewhere for his brother to find, instead keeping it on his body for the cops to undoubtedly confiscate.
Well, in this instance a unfair action led to a dire consequence.
Hopefully, a Family Court judge will take that to heart.
Good point.
Why did he go to his brother’s?
Maybe the original plan involved placing suspicion on his bro?
So - do you think if she returned the ring, didn’t receive $10,000 - that he would have refrained from shooting and burning 9 people?
10 grand - a ring - and a dog will do that to a guy? Really?
Considereing his nice job, one would think $10 grand wouldn’t have seemed like much to him.
Some try to understand.
Others know only to condemn.
Who knows? He had planned to go to Canada but it isn't like Canada means freedom in a case like this. They'd have extradited him back to the USA in a quick minute!
Without an income? He lost his job.
He wasn't a Rockerfeller.
He wasn’t dirt poor either.
So - again - do you think he wouldn’t have done this if he got to keep the $10 grand, the ring, and the dog?
Having no severance and being denied unemployment benefits doesn't bode well to the future.
So - again - do you think he wouldn’t have done this if he got to keep the $10 grand, the ring, and the dog?
You forgot the back spousal support he owed.
You seem to be assuming, against all the evidence, that Pardo was the victim here.
But so far, you're only making an ass of U.
To a degree, yes.
But so far, you're only making an ass of U.
Whoah, good comeback./s
ok - so give the guy back his spousal support money too.
In fact, give him back every single dime he ever spent on her.
Would that have prevented him from doing this?
I think yes.
so you “think’ it’s all about money?
So - this type of thing can be prevented if we make sure men don’t suffer any kind of monetary damage in a divorce?
Still cute with the gender card. He was unemployed with no income, forced to pay a large amount of money and she filed for divorced.
Do you think that was fair?
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