Suicidal Bad Santa Kills 8, Burns Down House on Christmas Eve

"Bad Santa" is a horrible movie about a horrible person living a horrible life doing horrible things to other people. Bruce Pardo was "the nicest guy you could imagine" and nothing like the character played by Billy Bob Thornton. But Bruce Pardo became a bad santa. Sometime between last week's divorce settlement and Christmas Eve, Bruce Pardo decided to don a Santa suit, take guns to a Christmas Eve party, start shooting, and burn down a house with people in it.

But Billy Bob Thornton's bad Santa did not go on a rampage. This bad Santa had gone off script...

Incidents like the Christmas Eve Santa shooting that occurred in Covina, California, at just before midnight on December 24 are usually the preserve of not-so-subtle, poorly written, acted, and directed melodramas. But the "happiest day of the year" turned to one of real horror when Bruce Pardo, dressed in a Santa suit and carrying what looked like a present, knocked on his former in-laws' door and, when the door was opened, shot an 8-year-old girl in the face. Santa (Pardo) then began shooting his way through the Christmas Eve party, party-goers running before him. He unwrapped the "present," which enclosed a pressurized container, and doused the house in a flammable liquid. After setting the house ablaze, Pardo exited the house, took off the Santa suit, and drove away.

According to the Associated Press, eight people were killed, including three whose bodies were found in the ashes of the burned house the next day. It is believed that the three bodies were those of Pardo's in-laws and his ex-wife.

Three people were wounded. The 8-year-old girl survived the gunshot and was hospitalized. A 16-year-old girl was shot in the back. A 20-year-old woman broke her ankle leaping from a second-floor window to escape the burning house. All are expected to recover.

Bruce Pardo, 45, was found early Christmas Day when police responded to a call to his brother's house in the Sylmar section of Los Angeles. Pardo had apparently committed suicide, a single gunshot to the head.

The resemblance to a terrible b-movie does not end there. Bruce Pardo was the stereotypical nice-guy-who-snapped. He had no record of violent behavior, no criminal record. Neighbors said he was a nice guy. He was often seen walking his dog. He and his family were quiet people. According to the Los Angeles Times, Pardo was an usher at evening Mass at the Holy Redeemer Catholic Church in Montrose. One fellow usher described him as "the nicest guy you could imagine."

One neighbor, Bong Garcia, told the Times he had seen Pardo about two hours before the shooting incident. Pardo had told him he was going to a Christmas party.

Bruce Pardo's motive seems to have stemmed from an acrimonious divorce from his wife. The couple were married barely a year. The divorce ended just last week in a settlement. With a line straight out of schlock theatre, police Leiutenant Pat Buchanan stated, "It was not an amicable divorce."

Unfortunately, however, the result of Bruce Pardo's rampage, the Christmas Eve massacre in Covina, was all too real. But the horror will not end there. The media will run with this story for days. True crime television shows will be produced. Lengthy articles and perhaps even books will be written about the incident. Lifetime cable channel will more than likely produce a movie of its own, complete with a poor script and the obligatory bad acting -- and even worse "Bad Santa."

And the cycle of art(?) imitating life, life imitating art will continue.

But not for the nine people that died. That is where the tired cycle cliché abruptly ends. Because, unlike the poorly scripted b-movie and dramatizations that the Christmas Eve Santa shooting will undoubtedly engender, those that are portrayed in this senseless act will not simply rise up and go on to appear in another film, television show, or stage production.

Perhaps the most unfortunate aspect of the Christmas Eve Santa shooting massacre (besides the tragedy itself) is that, using history as a rule, it will happen again. And not just in reruns on television. The sad tale will be told again and again, with different players, different Bruce Pardos, perhaps even another "Bad Santa," interchangeable lives on a fatalist tape loop, subject to constant replay in real life. And, on an even sadder note, there will be no one with the ability to shut down the production or help rewrite the script for the Bruce Pardos before the next tragic drama unfolds; no one to intervene before there are victims.

Again and again.

Life imitating art imitating life...

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Source:

Associated Press