# FUCK YOU Bruce Pardo, and the "Covina Christmas Massacre" **URL:** \ **Category:** The BBQ Pit\ **Created:** [December 27, 2008, 4:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fuck-you-bruce-pardo-and-the-covina-christmas-massacre/478811 "2008-12-27T04:17:25Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![rolandgunslinger](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/cdc98d/32.png) [@rolandgunslinger](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/rolandgunslinger)\ **Post date:** [December 27, 2008, 5:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fuck-you-bruce-pardo-and-the-covina-christmas-massacre/478811/41 "2008-12-27T17:16:21Z")
Than God no kittens were killed. The outrage would be 20 pages long by now. ---
**Author:** ![Annie-Xmas](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ecc23a/32.png) [@Annie-Xmas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Annie-Xmas)\ **Post date:** [December 27, 2008, 5:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fuck-you-bruce-pardo-and-the-covina-christmas-massacre/478811/42 "2008-12-27T17:37:12Z")
> [@KGS](#): > > Same here. > > According to media sources, this guy went through a bitter divorce, lost his job, and wasn’t even eligible for unemployment. No wonder he snapped. > > If you must Pit anyone, Pit the circumstances that led to this desperate act. Bitter divorce? People have been threw worse. Lost his job? Him and a lotta other people in this economy. Wsn’t eligible for unemployment? Appeal the decision. If he had “only” grabbed a gun and shot people, I might maybe believe some of this. But he had a passport, $17K (I work and I don’t have $17K in cash) and incendiary devices. He planned the murder and planned an escape, which means he was not insana in the legal sense. He planned a horrible massacre and when his escape plan didn’t go right, he killed himself rather than face the music. I have ZERO sympathy for anyone but his innocent victims. ---
**Author:** ![Blalron](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/35a633/32.png) [@Blalron](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Blalron)\ **Post date:** [December 27, 2008, 6:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fuck-you-bruce-pardo-and-the-covina-christmas-massacre/478811/43 "2008-12-27T18:08:53Z")
> [@Beware\_of\_Doug](#): > > It may be that we have to STOP BEING SHOCKED when these things happen in order to look at them and learn from them. > > Not being shocked must seem almost sociopathic, I guess. Well, mark me down as a sociopath, then, and a cynic too. I am no longer shocked by rampaging. Disgusted and saddened. But nowhere near shocked. I don’t believe in “free will.” Some combination of genetics and life circumstances molded this man into what he became. I think a small number of people are simply abberations and are prone to doing stuff like this. But getting mad at this fact of life is as usefull as getting mad at a tornado. ---
**Author:** ![Q.E.D](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/q/51bf81/32.png) [@Q.E.D](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Q.E.D)\ **Post date:** [December 27, 2008, 6:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fuck-you-bruce-pardo-and-the-covina-christmas-massacre/478811/44 "2008-12-27T18:11:43Z")
> [@Blalron](#): > > Some combination of genetics and life circumstances molded this man into what he became. Yeah, there you go. Empty the prisons; no one is accountable for their actions. :rolleyes: ---
**Author:** ![Sapo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ec9cab/32.png) [@Sapo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sapo)\ **Post date:** [December 27, 2008, 6:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fuck-you-bruce-pardo-and-the-covina-christmas-massacre/478811/45 "2008-12-27T18:38:42Z")
> [@John\_Mace](#): > > **Sapo** , this really surprised me, coming from you. You’re usually a lot more thoughtful than that… > > This was NOT a crime of passion. This was premeditated murder-- the guy had an escape plan mapped out. And how do you know that the guy was completely “normal” 10 minutes before the crime? > > As for those who say no one else was in danger, the guy burned the house down-- it could easily have spread through the neighborhood if conditions had been right. The couple who owned the house were reportedly very sociable with their other neighbors, and any one of them could have been in that house that night. Or, the guy could have killed anyone else who happened to rush over to help. On more careful reading of the news, you are absolutely right. It is hard to write off wanting to kill 25 people as a crime of passion. More so if kids are included. I could see wanting to kill lousy ex-wife and maybe a parent-in-law or two, but 25 people is just crazy. I retract that part. On the guy being nice 10 minutes before, and not wanting to make too much of a point of it since it is not a core issue here, it does seem like he was a nice guy before this whole mess. Many people on the OP’s second link talk of him as a nice friendly guy. One can only wonder what makes a likable guy go this bad. ---
**Author:** ![Q.E.D](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/q/51bf81/32.png) [@Q.E.D](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Q.E.D)\ **Post date:** [December 27, 2008, 6:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fuck-you-bruce-pardo-and-the-covina-christmas-massacre/478811/46 "2008-12-27T18:42:29Z")
> [@Sapo](#): > > One can only wonder what makes a likable guy go this bad. Likability has little or no connection to the capacity for violence. Some of the most prolific and violent serial killers in history have been likable people. Y’know, when they’re not actually killing people, I mean. ---
**Author:** ![The\_Tao\_s\_Revenge](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/73ab20/32.png) [@The\_Tao\_s\_Revenge](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Tao_s_Revenge)\ **Post date:** [December 27, 2008, 6:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fuck-you-bruce-pardo-and-the-covina-christmas-massacre/478811/47 "2008-12-27T18:49:29Z")
> [@KGS](#): > > Same here. > > According to media sources, this guy went through a bitter divorce, lost his job, and wasn’t even eligible for unemployment. No wonder he snapped. > > If you must Pit anyone, Pit the circumstances that led to this desperate act. No. That don’t fly. I’ve had to deal with poverty from a early age. This asshole was a sociopath. I don’t care if a warlord massacred your whole family and raped your sheep there’s no way a decent person can blow an 8 year old away. ---
**Author:** ![kaylasdad99](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kaylasdad99/32/3398_2.png) [@kaylasdad99](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kaylasdad99)\ **Post date:** [December 27, 2008, 6:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fuck-you-bruce-pardo-and-the-covina-christmas-massacre/478811/48 "2008-12-27T18:50:51Z")
> [@Clothahump](#): > > No. Circumstances are not responsible for the act. He was. He planned it out and destroyed many lives. > > I know the Constitution forbids “cruel and unusual punishment”, but this guy is a classic case of someone who should be hoisted by a strappado and placed over a low fire for many hours. You did get the part, did you not, where the burns he sustained made him think he looked a bit too conspicuous to carry on with his getaway plan, so he shot himself instead? ---
**Author:** ![Annie-Xmas](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ecc23a/32.png) [@Annie-Xmas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Annie-Xmas)\ **Post date:** [December 27, 2008, 7:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fuck-you-bruce-pardo-and-the-covina-christmas-massacre/478811/49 "2008-12-27T19:06:04Z")
You mean the burns he sustained \*\* at his own hand\*\*? ---
**Author:** ![Q.E.D](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/q/51bf81/32.png) [@Q.E.D](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Q.E.D)\ **Post date:** [December 27, 2008, 7:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fuck-you-bruce-pardo-and-the-covina-christmas-massacre/478811/50 "2008-12-27T19:29:02Z")
> [@kaylasdad99](#): > > You did get the part, did you not, where the burns he sustained made him think he looked a bit too conspicuous to carry on with his getaway plan, so he shot himself instead? No. I only see where it says he shot himself. No reason is given. ---
**Author:** ![KGS](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/90ced4/32.png) [@KGS](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/KGS)\ **Post date:** [December 27, 2008, 7:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fuck-you-bruce-pardo-and-the-covina-christmas-massacre/478811/51 "2008-12-27T19:35:59Z")
> [@Q.E.D](#): > > No. I only see where it says he shot himself. No reason is given. Pardo received third degree burns to his arms when he set off the homemade incendiary device. The red Santa suit was fused to his skin. I can see how that would make him a little too conspicuous to pass through airport security. ---
**Author:** ![Q.E.D](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/q/51bf81/32.png) [@Q.E.D](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Q.E.D)\ **Post date:** [December 27, 2008, 7:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fuck-you-bruce-pardo-and-the-covina-christmas-massacre/478811/52 "2008-12-27T19:46:36Z")
Thanks, but your speculation is irrelevant to the point. ---
**Author:** ![Equipoise](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/equipoise/32/151_2.png) [@Equipoise](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Equipoise)\ **Post date:** [December 27, 2008, 7:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fuck-you-bruce-pardo-and-the-covina-christmas-massacre/478811/53 "2008-12-27T19:58:09Z")
> [@The\_Tao\_s\_Revenge](#): > > there’s no way a decent person can blow an 8 year old away. According to [this fairly well-detailed article](http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2008/12/25/santa-shooting-kills-thre_n_153454.html), she’s been released from the hospital, so luckily it wasn’t as serious as it originally sounded. She will never look at Christmas or Santa the same, poor girl. > [@](#): > > Los Angeles County-USC Medical Center spokeswoman Adelaida De La Cerda said the 8-year-old girl who was shot in the face was released from the hospital Friday. Her mother had been at the hospital and was “extremely traumatized,” De La Cerda said. > > Her cousin, a 16-year-old girl brought in for observation, had superficial injuries and was released Thursday. The teenager’s mother was Bruce Pardo’s ex-wife, De La Cerda said. Also injured was a woman who broke her ankle when jumping from a second-story window. ---
**Author:** ![Spice\_Weasel](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spice_weasel/32/5435_2.png) [@Spice\_Weasel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spice_Weasel)\ **Post date:** [December 27, 2008, 7:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fuck-you-bruce-pardo-and-the-covina-christmas-massacre/478811/54 "2008-12-27T19:58:17Z")
The way people are trying to rationalize this heinous crime is blowing my mind. According to the general consensus, the woman whose MySpace comments drove a 13 year old girl to suicide should be drawn and quartered, but this guy gets off the outrage hook because he went through a bitter divorce in which possibly he got the short end of the stick? WTF kind of double standard are we talking about here? These excuses and rationalizations are not going to help anything. I’m genuinely sorry his life was turning out so shitty. A lot of us have had to deal with shitty life circumstances at one time or another. Our solution has not been to massacre innocent people. As far as the ‘‘likable guy’’ thing goes, you’d be surprised how many fine upstanding pillars of your community do horrible, evil things. The fact that so few people can wrap their heads around this possibility greatly contributes to the endemic nature of abuse, addiction, and a great many other social ills. Person X cannot truly be a wife-beater because Person X is a nice guy whereas wife-beaters are monsters. The two are not mutually exclusive, you know. I guarantee you that some acquaintance you love, some guy you work with or some woman you always chat with at the grocery store, who gave you a ride or loaned you five bucks or who always has a funny joke, goes home and beats the shit out of their kids every night. It doesn’t make your perception of that person wrong, it just makes it incomplete. ---
**Author:** ![AuntiePam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/f19dbf/32.png) [@AuntiePam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AuntiePam)\ **Post date:** [December 27, 2008, 7:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fuck-you-bruce-pardo-and-the-covina-christmas-massacre/478811/55 "2008-12-27T19:59:15Z")
What **KGS** said isn’t speculation. Pardo’s burns were severe enough to ruin his getaway plan. I suppose you can speculate that without the burns, he would have killed himself anyway, but that’s giving him too much credit. ---
**Author:** ![Q.E.D](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/q/51bf81/32.png) [@Q.E.D](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Q.E.D)\ **Post date:** [December 27, 2008, 8:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fuck-you-bruce-pardo-and-the-covina-christmas-massacre/478811/56 "2008-12-27T20:03:47Z")
> [@AuntiePam](#): > > What **KGS** said isn’t speculation. Of course it is. Unless you have a link to an article about his suicide note explaining it. ---
**Author:** ![MsWhatsit](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/eb8c5e/32.png) [@MsWhatsit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MsWhatsit)\ **Post date:** [December 27, 2008, 8:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fuck-you-bruce-pardo-and-the-covina-christmas-massacre/478811/57 "2008-12-27T20:07:05Z")
> [@Q.E.D](#): > > Of course it is. Unless you have a link to an article about his suicide note explaining it. It’s speculation that the local police are indulging in also, as I’ve seen the police spokesman giving this as an explanation on the news. That being said, I don’t care if he shot himself because he had a sudden moment of guilt, or because of the burns, or because a magic sky pixie told him to. He’s still a stain on humanity (well, WAS) and is fully responsible for every one of his actions. ---
**Author:** ![Muffin](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/muffin/32/4341_2.png) [@Muffin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Muffin)\ **Post date:** [December 27, 2008, 8:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fuck-you-bruce-pardo-and-the-covina-christmas-massacre/478811/58 "2008-12-27T20:26:41Z")
Ruffian, I’m so sorry you and yours had a front row seat. How very horrid. ---
**Author:** ![vivalostwages](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/d07c76/32.png) [@vivalostwages](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/vivalostwages)\ **Post date:** [December 27, 2008, 8:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fuck-you-bruce-pardo-and-the-covina-christmas-massacre/478811/59 "2008-12-27T20:34:20Z")
This shooter/arsonist also caused ten kids to be orphaned. The whole thing is FUBB. ---
**Author:** ![Blalron](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/35a633/32.png) [@Blalron](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Blalron)\ **Post date:** [December 27, 2008, 8:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fuck-you-bruce-pardo-and-the-covina-christmas-massacre/478811/60 "2008-12-27T20:58:39Z")
> [@Q.E.D](#): > > Yeah, there you go. Empty the prisons; no one is accountable for their actions. :rolleyes: The threat of punishment is one factor that can influence peoples decisions, so even if Free Will is an illusion, that doesn’t mean prisons should be abolished. Our actions our brought about by electrochemical activity in our brains. This activity is caused by prior events outside of one “self” and probably by some quantum randomness as well. Taking this into account, X number of people will go batshit crazy in a given year and there’s only so much we can do about it. It’s simply a hazard of life, like tornadoes and lightning strikes. Bruce Pardo had no criminal history, he just did this crazy shit out of the blue and apparently wasn’t deterred by the threat of jail or death. There’s probably nothing we can do to stop freak occurances like this, getting worked up about this is simply a waste of emotional energy. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fuck-you-bruce-pardo-and-the-covina-christmas-massacre/478811.md?page=2) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fuck-you-bruce-pardo-and-the-covina-christmas-massacre/478811.md?page=4)