// Workers AI · dad joke modeWhat did the Covina massacre say to the calendar? You're killed my schedule.

"Sylvia Pardo" redirects here. For the Mexican painter, see Silvia Pardo.

"Santa Claus murders" redirects here. For the 1997 murder case in Santa Claus, Georgia, see Daniels family murders.

"Christmas eve massacre" redirects here. For the massacre in Myanmar, see Mo So massacre.

Covina massacre
Location	Covina, California, U.S.
Date	December 24, 2008 (December 24, 2008) c. 11:30 p.m. (PST; UTC−08:00)
Target	Ex-wife and her family
Attack type	Mass shooting, mass murder, murder-suicide, arson, ex-uxoricide
Weapons	Four 9mm SIG Sauer semi-automatic handguns Homemade incendiary device
Deaths	10 (including the perpetrator)
Injured	3 (2 from gunfire)
Perpetrator	Bruce Jeffrey Pardo
Motive	Contentious divorce

The Covina massacre was a mass shooting and arson attack that Bruce Jeffrey Pardo, 45, committed on Christmas Eve, 2008, in Covina, California, United States. Pardo, wearing a Santa suit, entered a property belonging to his former in-laws and killed nine people by shooting or by arson from the fire he started. Pardo was later found dead from a self-inflicted gunshot at his brother's residence in the early hours of Christmas Day.

Police speculated that Pardo's divorce, which had been finalized only one week before the killings, was a factor in why Pardo had decided to kill his ex-wife and her relatives.

Killings

At approximately 11:30 p.m. on Christmas Eve, Pardo arrived at his former in-law's house in a rental car. He had with him multiple 9mm SIG Sauer handguns and a large gift-wrapped package containing a rolling air compressor converted to spray racing fuel. When he knocked on the door and his 8-year-old niece answered, Pardo pulled out the handguns and opened fire, wounding her. He then fired indiscriminately at fleeing party-goers.

After opening fire with the handguns, Pardo unwrapped the package containing the compressor and sprayed fuel around the interior of the home. Police believe the fire was intended to be ignited with a flare but when the fuel contacted an open flame in the house there was an explosion. Between the gunfire and the flames, a total of nine family members were killed and three were injured. One of the survivors made it to a neighbor's house, where she called police and identified Pardo as the likely suspect.

Pardo had apparently planned a detailed escape. He had rented multiple vehicles and parked one near the house of his ex-wife's divorce attorney, full of supplies and maps of the Southwest and Mexico. Police speculated the attorney might have also been a target. Pardo had made plans to visit a friend in Iowa and had purchased a Christmas morning plane ticket from Los Angeles to Moline, Illinois. He was also carrying cash strapped to his body.

However, the explosion and fire had left Pardo with third-degree burns on his arms and legs. After setting the home on fire, Pardo changed out of the Santa suit and drove to his brother's house in Sylmar, where he was found dead from a self-inflicted gunshot wound to the mouth. His brother was not present in the home at the time of Pardo's death. The medical examiners found that cocaine was in his system at the time of the attack and his death.

Pardo's rental car, parked one block from his brother's house, contained remnants of his Santa suit, booby-trapped so that moving the suit would trigger a fire and set off 200 rounds of ammunition. At Pardo's house in Montrose, police had recovered five empty boxes for semiautomatic handguns, two shotguns and a container for high-octane fuel tank gasoline. They also found what was described as a "virtual bomb-making factory" in his home.

Victims

In addition to three injured victims, the nine deceased victims were: Sylvia Ortega Pardo, age 43, ex-wife of Bruce Pardo; Alicia Sotomayor Ortega, age 70, mother-in-law; Joseph S. Ortega, age 79, father-in-law; Charles Ortega, age 50, brother-in-law; Cheri Lynn Ortega, age 45, sister-in-law; James Ortega, age 52, brother-in-law; Teresa Ortega, age 52, sister-in-law; Alicia Ortega Ortiz, age 46, sister-in-law; Michael Andre Ortiz, age 17, nephew.

Perpetrator

Bruce Jeffrey Pardo

Bruce Jeffrey Pardo (March 23, 1963 – December 25, 2008) lived in San Fernando Valley and was a graduate of John H. Francis Polytechnic High School in Sun Valley, Los Angeles, and California State University, Northridge. He had worked at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in La Cañada Flintridge. In 2004, he met Sylvia Pardo (née Ortega).

Motivation

Police speculate that Pardo may have been motivated to murder by a desire to avoid the financial consequences of his divorce. The couple wed in January 2006, and their marriage fell apart within the first year because Pardo refused to open a joint bank account with Sylvia; he also expected his wife to use her own finances to take care of her own three children. There is some speculation that the divorce may have also been caused by Pardo concealing a child from a previous relationship for which Pardo did not pay child or spousal support.

In June 2008, a divorce court ordered Pardo to pay $1,785 a month in spousal support. During the divorce proceedings, Pardo confided to a friend his wife was "taking him to the cleaners." In July, Pardo, who had no criminal record or history of violence, was fired from his job as an electrical engineer at ITT Corporation Electronic Systems Radar Systems for billing false hours. The divorce court suspended the support payments due to financial hardship. However, as part of the divorce settlement, Pardo was required to pay his ex-wife $10,000, and she was permitted to keep her wedding ring and the family dog. Pardo complained to the court that Sylvia was living with her parents, not paying rent, and had spent lavishly on a luxury car, gambling trips to Las Vegas, meals at expensive restaurants, massages, and golf lessons. Pardo and Sylvia finalized their divorce a week prior to the attack.

Depiction in media

Music

• Poly Styrene, the lead singer of X-Ray Spex, recorded a song inspired by the shooting in 2010 called "Black Christmas". The music video contains references to the shooting.
• The Scottish band A Dose of Death released a song titled Christmassacre, associated with the Covina massacre within the true crime genre.

Film

• The killing spree of Ronald Jones in the 2012 holiday slasher film Silent Night was partially inspired by the massacre.

See also

• List of massacres in the United States
• List of homicides in California
• Carthage nursing home shooting
• 2011 Grand Rapids shootings
• 2011 Seal Beach shooting
• Azana Spa shooting
• 2014 Harris County shooting

Further reading

• Levin, Jack (February 2014). "Mass Murder in Perspective: Guest Editor's Introduction". Homicide Studies. 18 (1): 3–6. doi:10.1177/1088767913514406. ISSN 1088-7679.
• Shih, Kristy Yu-Chieh (2011). Challenging Cultural Essentialism: Gender, Power, and Family Politics Among Mothers, Sons, and Daughters-in-law Across Cultures (PhD thesis). University of California, Riverside.
• Sathyavagiswaran, Lakshmanan; Rogers, Christopher B.; Harvey, Craig; Winter, Edward (2018). "High-Profile Cases". Multidisciplinary Medico-Legal Death Investigation. Elsevier. pp. 297–313. doi:10.1016/b978-0-12-813818-2.00015-6. ISBN 978-0-12-813818-2. Retrieved December 25, 2024.
• Liebert, John; Birnes, William J. (July 27, 2017). Suicidal Mass Murderers: A Criminological Study of Why They Kill. CRC Press. ISBN 978-1-4200-7679-0.
• Brandell, Jerrold R. (February 16, 2010). Theory & Practice in Clinical Social Work. SAGE. ISBN 978-1-4129-8138-5.
• Wright, Kevin A.; Pratt, Travis C.; DeLisi, Matt (May 2009). "Multiple Homicide Offenders: Arbitrary Cut-Off Points and Selection Bias". Homicide Studies. 13 (2): 193–199. doi:10.1177/1088767909334759. ISSN 1088-7679.

External links

• Covina Holiday Murders – San Gabriel Valley Tribune
• Inside the mind of a killer 'Santa' – Los Angeles Times