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Santa gunman was in bitter divorce, lost job
http://www.startribune.com ^ | December 26, 2008 | By CHRISTINA HOAG

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 ...


TOPICS: News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: badsanta; evil; horror; pardo; santa
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To: earlJam

Journalists are know-nothings. Every time I read a news account about a subject I know something about, I can see that they get it wrong, wrong, wrong. Every time. This “reporter” apparently thinks that calling a shotgun “high powered” makes it sound ever so much more evil.


41 posted on 12/27/2008 10:12:22 AM PST by ducdriver (99% of liberals give the other 1% a bad name.)
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To: null and void

“A little adversity is no excuse for behaving badly.”

amen


42 posted on 12/27/2008 10:12:48 AM PST by Scotswife
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To: xmission
The MSM was quick to mention that he was an usher at his church. Had this been a ROP member, there would have been silence.

I don't think it's a conspiracy to make his church look bad. It's pertinent information, along with his lack of police record and prior jobs in the aerospace industry.

All these facts put together would leave the typical reader (like myself) asking how this apparently normal, well-adjusted, church-going man could go off the deep end so violently. And it looks like we're finding our answer in his divorce settlement saddled on top of his job loss and unemployment denial.

43 posted on 12/27/2008 10:13:08 AM PST by Drew68
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To: GOPJ

“A woman so morally bankrupt that she’ll leave a man when he’s down was probably chosen for her looks. “

She discovered he had abandoned a disabled son but was still claiming the boy for tax purposes.

In other words - she discovered he was a lowlife - and HAD been a lowlife for a long time.


44 posted on 12/27/2008 10:14:38 AM PST by Scotswife
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To: Cringing Negativism Network
It’s a shame to think - “free trade” just might have contributed to this awful situation.

You're right about this - part of what our elites don't understand it that much of "wealth" IS the job. Not what the job earns, but the actual "job".

If I call a company for support ( or to vacation cancel my paper) and I get people in India or the Phillipines - I mentally mark it - and don't do business with the people when my contract or subscription runs out.

45 posted on 12/27/2008 10:15:44 AM PST by GOPJ (GM's market value is a third of Bed, Bath and Beyond. Why is GM "too big to fail"? Steyn)
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To: Maelstorm
Anyone who hides the fact that he has a disabled son except to the IRS for a tax write off, has wasted too much time on this planet.

Santa should have killed HIM.

46 posted on 12/27/2008 10:17:51 AM PST by BallyBill (Serial Hit-N-Run poster)
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To: Scotswife

I was referring to the example that “Cringing Negativism Network” had used. He was not defending this man either - but was referring to men who lose their jobs and confidence and wives. He was NOT talking about the man in this article - who was clearly a psycho. There is NEVER an excuse to do what that evil man did - shooting children in the face? Revenge tantrum? Awful. No, there IS NO EXCUSE for the animal.


47 posted on 12/27/2008 10:20:10 AM PST by GOPJ (GM's market value is a third of Bed, Bath and Beyond. Why is GM "too big to fail"? Steyn)
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To: MyTwoCopperCoins

I’m not making excuses.

He’s a nutball. Or that is, he was.

But fact is, there’s a statistically meaningful portion of society, whose connection with good behavior is shall we say, tenuous?

Our society increasingly is devoid of right/wrong. Everything becomes about feelings, and victim mentality. And Covina is pretty much gang central. Violence in that part of LA, is a pretty common thing.

Gangs and violence trend upward. Respect of right and wrong, continues to dissolve - in part because of liberal “relativism”.

Cal is becoming a mess.


48 posted on 12/27/2008 10:22:02 AM PST by Cringing Negativism Network ("Free Trade" = Fire Americans. Buy another company then fire more Americans.)
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To: GOPJ

She truly was a morally bankrupt bimbo. Great choice of words. She demanded that he stop claiming a tax deduction on his brain injured son who he had already abandoned years before. This coward shoots an 8 year old girl in the face and you make some kind of rationalization that the ex wife is somehow to blame because she didn’t stand by her man. There is a God and the bad news for Santa is that he is the God of perfect justice.


49 posted on 12/27/2008 10:22:26 AM PST by freefdny
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To: GOPJ

And I’m trying to add a bit more fact into the circumstances of this particular case.

She was appalled at his behavior.
This had nothing to with having a job - losing a job - outsourcing, or anything like that.

It sounds like he lost his job after she had already filed.


50 posted on 12/27/2008 10:22:53 AM PST by Scotswife
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To: Maelstorm

He missed the judge...


51 posted on 12/27/2008 10:23:28 AM PST by MaxMax (I'll welcome death when God calls me. Until then, the fight is on)
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To: Maelstorm

This guy paved his own road...

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,473024,00.html


52 posted on 12/27/2008 10:28:58 AM PST by Scotswife
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To: Scotswife

Pardo’s son suffered brain damage when he wandered out to the pool while Pardo was supposed to be watching him. The boy’s mother (Pardo’s girlfriend) found Pardo in front of the TV, whether awake or asleep, and the boy missing. Pardo pulled him out of the pool but too late.


53 posted on 12/27/2008 10:30:31 AM PST by heartwood (Tarheel in exile)
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To: earlJam

Mark my words. These Obamots and liberal idiot anti-gun idiots will find a way to call a self-loading pistol an “Assault Pistol” one day. Its reference to “high-powered” was to bring to mind the evil “high powered rifle” as in ‘assassination boom-boom stick’ to the typical idiot Obamot voter.


54 posted on 12/27/2008 10:32:34 AM PST by Gaffer
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To: heartwood

wow.

The details keep getting worse and worse.

Too bad for this woman and her family she ever got mixed up with him in the first place.


55 posted on 12/27/2008 10:32:34 AM PST by Scotswife
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To: Cringing Negativism Network
Guy loses his job. His confidence crumbles - and he is no longer the man his wife married. She divorces him, and he goes insane.

And he's forced by the courts to pay $2,000 a month to support an ex-wife and children that were not his own.

How can you fork over $2,000 a month without a job?

And he lost his dog in the divorce settlement as well.

56 posted on 12/27/2008 10:37:35 AM PST by LdSentinal
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To: najida

ping!

Let’s blame everything else but the guy!


57 posted on 12/27/2008 10:38:22 AM PST by Scotswife
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To: MaxMax
He wouldn't say what the couple's problems were, but did say Pardo wanted to remain married while his wife wanted the divorce.

Few things in this world as dangerous as a jealous/angry husband/x-husband.

58 posted on 12/27/2008 10:39:24 AM PST by dragnet2
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To: LdSentinal

you didn’t read the article.

Terms had changed to his favor prior to the killings.

He got to keep the house - she got $10,000


59 posted on 12/27/2008 10:39:50 AM PST by Scotswife
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To: Scotswife

Sorry Scotswife, I didn’t mean at all to make it sound like I was deriding her.

In fact, I was trying to recognize the truth in this world, that women seek different things from their guy, than guys do from their woman. He lost his job - from what you’re saying he was already wrapped pretty tight, and from his actions that’s obvious in hindsight.

But the point my comment was (attempting) to recognize is when a guy lets himself dissolve, that can take away from him the help of the one person who could prevent it.

Even the best women have limits.

Sorry if I seemed to be saying otherwise. :)


60 posted on 12/27/2008 10:40:23 AM PST by Cringing Negativism Network ("Free Trade" = Fire Americans. Buy another company then fire more Americans.)
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