911 caller: "I don't know who else is alive, who's...,"
Dispatcher "I know, I know, ma'am. Just stay on the phone with me, okay?"
911 Caller: "...my whole family, there's 30 people, 25 people!"
Dispatcher: "I know, I know.
Rhey are the 911 calls made after 45-year old Bruce Pardo allegedly walked into his former in-laws house wearing a Santa outfit and opened fire, emptying all four handguns he carried with him.
Pardo was an unemployed electrical engineer whose divorce was finalized just last week. While this might have been a crime of passion, the shootings and arson now appear meticulously planned.
"It appears he did have some intended targets, those being the family members , the immediate family of his ex-wife," said Covina Police Chief Kim Raney, "It's believed the gunman then set the home on fire with a pressurized fuel tank he used to spray flammable liquid."
Suffering third degree burns, he drove to his brothers house in Sylmar and committed suicide. But police claim Pardo had originally intended to escape.
"Mr. Pardo did have $17,000 dollars in cash saran-wrapped to his legs or concealed inside of a girdle that he was wearing. He also had a plane ticket for an early morning flight Christmas morning from LAX to Canada," said Chief Raney.
Hours later, officers discovered the suspect's rental car filled with ammunition and explosives; including a pipe bomb that went off but did not injure anyone.
The human remains will take some time to positively identify. Pardo's ex-wife and her parents are unaccounted for and feared dead.
