On Christmas Eve 2008, in Covina, California, a man named Bruce Pardo went to his ex-in-laws house in a Santa suit with bad intentions. They were having a Christmas Eve party which had about twenty-five guests. Pardo had made a homemade flamethrower, put it in a package, and wrapped it in gift paper as if it were a present. He also had a total of four senior-automatic handguns in his possession. When the door opened, he started firing. His first victim was an 8-year-old girl. He then fired in every direction he could at the guest. After the shootings, Pardo then opened the package containing the flamethrower and used it to set the house on fire. Nine people, including his ex-wife, Sylvia Ortega, her mother, her father, her two brothers, their two wives, her sister, and her nephew. They either died from gunshot wounds or flames from the house fire. It took over an hour and eighty firemen to extinguish the fire.

After the attack was over, Pardo put on his regular clothes and drove a rental car, 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. Suggesting that what had been inside the car was being treated as a threat, a bomb squad fired an incendiary device on it, destroying and burning it. At Pardo’s house in Montrose, police had recovered five empty boxes of semi-automatic handguns, two shotguns, and a container for high-octane fuel tank gasoline. To his brother’s house(who was not present). Pardo was later found dead at his brother’s house. His death was ruled a suicide. Police say the motive was marriage issues. Pardo’s ex-wife wanted a divorce. Pardo was expected to pay Ms. Ortega ten thousand dollars after the divorce because of these problems which are what set Pardo over the edge. What is strange is Mr. Pardo had no criminal history, so what prompted him to do this must have been mental issues.