If he dropped the gun after shooting himself, they'll have to do ballistics tests to see if he was the one that fired it. Looking for gunpowder residue on the hands, etc. Otherwise, if they can't find anyone in that apartment that fired the gun, then the gunman is still on the loose!

The main point is that the article states as a fact that the man in the Santa suit turned the gun on himself, then stated that the killer hasn't yet been identified. Maybe it's just the writer's error to have stated it that way.

It's a pretty fair bed the Santa Claus suit will be removed and examined in fine detail as part of the autopsy.

At this point, it's still reasonable to refer to Mr. Yazdanpanah as the 'apparent' gunman until it can really be verified. This is part of what the continuing investigation and post mortem is for - trying to rule out a possibility that he was being set up, framed, coerced, or whatever. They'll also make sure that the gunshot was in fact self inflicted, versus fired by a second person who may have shot him at close range and left the weapon to make it look like he'd shot himself, and that it was the actual cause of death and that he wasn't, say, poisoned or hit over the head and then shot to mask that.

Sometimes these things are exactly what they look like and other times some very bizarre plots are uncovered by detailed examinations of the evidence.

Sorry real SANTA..

I just received a facebook post this very night of a co-worker who was once suicidal. I would tell him to not give up and urge him to keep seeking medical attention. I shared with him my battle with depression and how I won it with therapy and medication. He is smiling in his pictures that he sent me--it is the first time I have seen him smile so naturally. He has a family now. You can make a difference in a person's life. He will always be my brother.

While this is a very sad story, I'm not sure why they're emphasizing the fact that it was planned, as if that's a surprising detail. I'd be more shocked if the man went into his home, and then accidentally dressed as Santa, grabbed two guns and killed his whole family.

There are many Arabs who are Christian. *eyeroll*

And...Iranians aren't Arabs, they are Persian.

"Close enough"... that's probably what your teachers told your parents on graduation day huh?

lmao!

Sad to say, even though I live here, twits like these (Ft. Lauderdale) are bountiful here!!!!

Ephraim... Persians are cats!!!

His teacher graded on the "Curve". That explains it. Close enough.

Do you or don't you want All people to assimilate? Stupid.

I'm pretty sure I know Brooke in Ft. Lauderdale, and I asked her why people like her can't differentiate between Persian and Ariab. This is what she told me:

"I personally believe that U.S. Americans are unable to do so because uh,some, people out there, in our nation. don’t have maps. And uh, I believe that our education like such as in South Africa, and the Iraq, everywhere like such as… and, I believe they should uh, our education over here, in the U.S. should help the U.S. or should help South Africa, and should help the Iraq and Asian countries so we will be able to build up our future, for us."

Uh, yeah, Brooke in Ft. Lauderdale, I think that explains it perfectly. I know it's hot down there in Louisiana, but keep studying and by the end of the year you'll know ten times as much as you do now!

Danny Thomas, founder of Saint Jude childrens research hospital and entertainer in movies and tv was arabic and christian...go fig.

Maybe that's what set him off.

"I'm Santa...you don't want to recognize ME? OK, recognize THIS!"

RW: He was from Lebanon.

I figured they were Christian Arabs. But supposdedly to the internet scuttlebutt, they are MUSLIMS. How crazy is dat? Daddy Muslim dresses up as Santa Claus and kills his 18 year ole daughter for datin an Infidel, then wacks the rest of da family. Don't know if it's true. Crazy if it is. May the innocent rest in peace.

What ever he was, he didn't believe in Santa.

Didn't take much to make the slaying of 7 people an Arab/Muslim discussion. Comments had a totally different tone before the names were released, Wonder what creates and nurtures terrorism - this kind of mindsets force it on some

Michael, thanks, If they are Muslim like you said is on YOUR news, don't ya think that this CRAZY, a sudden Jihad Muslim, dressed as Santa Clauss, kills his daughter for datin an infidel and then kills the rest of his "moderate Muslim" family as they celebrated an American holiday of Christmas, sharin gifts and love DRESSED as SANTA! People wonder where the moderate Muslims are. They git killed. This gotta be the absurdity of da year!

Then we have PC police like Tes statin that "Wonder what creates and nurtures terrorism - this kind of mindsets force it on some". Tes, I didn't even have a thought that it was an Islamic honor killin untill I read the names and saw the skuttlebutt on the internet. I've been studin Islam since 911, spent several years in Islamic Paradises in combat, seen more than I ever wish on anyone, and I never imagined this!

Michael, what's the story of da Illegals being killed in Mexico? I missed that.

Maybe if it wasn't so easy to get a "Smith and Wesson 915 model 9 mm pistol with a 15-round magazine, and a Glock 23 .40-caliber pistol with a 10-round clip" in Texas this obviously stressed person would not have been able to wipe out an entire family........oh what am I talking about ..... he had 2nd Amendment Rights just like the rest of the gun totin Texans (like the lady who shot her kid and herself a couple weeks ago over Food Stamps). The NRA fully supports actions like this it just proves the point that if his wife or kids also had taken up their 2nd Amendment Rights to arm themselves with similar weapons they could have had a real shoot out.

This guy wasn't an outlaw with a gun he was just some stressed out individual who had access to them. When will they ever learn?

The man had classic economic and marital factors, like dozens of other familicides. That, along with an underlying mental illness, is all it would take. A good American Academy of Psychiatry article, refer to sections Filicide-Suicide Offense Characteristics, Parental Psychiatric Histories and Motives in Filicide-Suicide,

jaapl.org/content/33/4/496.full

LOL, David, I know what you mean! There is nothing wrong with celebrating something that has been made a national holiday. I had a co-worker that used to celebrate solstice, equinox, and groundhog day, just so we could have an office party!

Definitely not impossible. I choose to give my children spontaneous, thoughtful, surprise gifts any time of the year that have more meaning than compulsory gifts on one specific date. All of the Christmas customs stem from non-Biblical origins (secular sources confirm this). The early churches chose to adopt these customs so as to make the pagan converts more comfortable. It's all about tickling the ears (for people to come to church and put money in the baskets) rather than teach the truth. True, many people no longer recognize any religious elements in Christmas, yet with my Bible trained conscience I won't get involved in this holiday.

JEP1-Are you Jehovah's Witness?

I apologize my comments took the focus away from how aweful this tragedy is. Yet another sad example of the state of the world.

there is a difference between "celebrating" Christmas, and "observing" Christmas....

At the Catholic high school my kids attended there happened to be students of many non-Christian faiths. Many students joined in celebrating both the Christian and non-Christian faith holidays. Dreidels came out at Hanakkuh. Some even joined their Muslim friends for the Ramadan fast. Bhuddist nuns and monk from a local monastery visited the senior religion class. Look for the joyous in everything!

People with no mind usually follow what the media tells them.

Mark - I observe Christmas every year. I observe people making a mockery of the supposed meaning behind it, which, with a little research anyone can figure out isn't valid. Jep1 said it well.

Are you Jehovah's Witness?

I hadn't realized there had been an accident....

Christmas was around long before Christ was.

I couldn't tell you what it used to be called...many different names, I'm sure...but the holiday had always been the winter solstice celebration and eventually was also appointed to be the observed birthday of Christ.

Further, I know some denominations of Christianity that were once common had little to do with Christmas themselves as it was a birthday celebration and they weren't keen on celebrating anyone's birthday. Easter was 'the' day to them.

In any case, the scholars I respect the most have long held that the birth of Christ was in the spring and would probably have been in March given that shepherds were in the fields with their flocks, when apparently they would not be at the end of December in that part of the world. It would seem that Christmas was designated as being the same time as the old winter solstice celebration to keep early Christians from bolting as the celebration was quite popular...like Christmas still is today!

Which scholars do you respect the most?

I still remember that my Mother would always serve fish on Fridays and Matzo on Passover. She too, wanted to cover all bases!

No offense, but what does the Persian culture have to do with anything? People of all cultures have been taking their families out left and right this past year, and all the years previous. Financial and marital problems can make anyone of any race snap. I only wish these people would stop taking everyone with them when they decide to go.

Agree with DLux - this is not cultural. Men (almost always) like these are family annihilators; they are usually under a lot of stress and plan to commit suicide but feel their family cannot survive without them and is taking them to a better place. It's delusional, of course; they're depressed, despondent, can't deal with failure as they see it. It's also very selfish of them to feel they are entitled to decided how his family lives - or dies.

My younger sister was married to an Iranian. He chose to practice what he wanted to. Did'nt eat pork etc. Told all of us he was from Persia, was educated in the good old U.S.A. as were his brothers. Seemed like a nice guy. But very Macho. He moved my sister to Texas, Arlington in fact. Everything changed when we bombed Iraq the first time. He and relatives would only speak Farsi, leaving my sister out of conversations. She finally came home with her cat and anything she could fit in her car. The last straw was how they treated her even though she helped enroll they're kids in school etc. all at the Amercans taxpayers expense. Maybe the handouts ran out for these people and they had to actually had to work for what they needed to survive. How sad to wipe out your entire family, things always have a way of working out. One thing with these guys do well is controll their wives, as my sis was not herself while married to her ex. Educate women and children and they will educate a whole village. God Bless

I didn't see any indication in the story that this had anything to do with religion. It would seem, however, that the case could be made for the problem this country has with cheap and readily available (thanks to melodramatic lobbying by the NRA and other paranoids) handguns. Thank goodness for the 2nd ammendment- See what a great thing it was for these folks?

Religion might have had something to do with this, but I'd say not in a direct way. Ultimately, it was personal. Only Mr. Yazdanpanah knew for sure why he did it.

I don't recall hearing what he did for a living, but they make very plain that he was a father. We know he was at least that much. Many people, men especially, take what they do to be a major portion of their identity. If they 'lose' what they do, it is often taken as a serious personal attack against them. This is part of why people - most always men - sometimes go shoot up the premises and personnel at their former employer after being fired instead of starting to look for a new job and moving on. They feel that a huge part of who they are has just been cut out of them and they're furious. Occasionally, you'll get a man who was 'all about' being a father. Most of us would agree that whether a man is a great father or a lousy father, once you're a father, you're always a father. But, some men may feel that if their wife takes the kids and leaves, then they're no longer a father - or at least the one they thought they were. They may become quite distraught as a result of this. He may have felt to have been marginalized or made insignificant and couldn't figure out how to adjust to his new circumstances. I'm sure loosing the house in foreclosure last year didn't do anything to boost his state of mental health, either.

As far as 'cheap' handguns goes, I think a great many people will agree that $500 - $1000 or more each is hardly inexpensive. As far as readily available goes, I can think of a number of communities where there are no Federal Firearms License holding dealers - no gun shops - and you'd have to drive 50 or 100 miles to find one. Where I live, there wasn't one for some years and if a person wanted to purchase a handgun from the area's one gun retailer 40 miles away across the state line, they'd have to find a licensed dealer somewhere in this state to have the gun shipped to who would, in turn, resell it to them in this state. That generally adds another $25-50 to the cost, too, and I'm fairly sure both states would be collecting sales tax on that $500-1000 handgun, too, so figure in another $50-100 to the sticker price for that.

A lieutenant in the local police department where I live told me several years back that they didn't confiscate many pistols or revolvers from the street, but they sure took a lot of knives and improvised weapons off of suspects' hands.

that statement has no value, the same could have been done with a bow and arrows and sword or knives or even poison darts and needles and explosives. where there's a will there's a way, this is true of everything. i own a lot of weapons including guns and I'm not paranoid I'm prepared. i still wouldn't wish what happened on someone who didn't deserve it though as this incident wasn't called for or necessary.

Paduki: ----- It may have had nothing at all to do with Persian culture. Similar murder-suicides take place in most--if not every--culture. I, like you, do not understand them, no matter what the culture.

After seeing comment 5.6 from Scarletbirds, consider this:

There is something else that has long been 'weaponized', by people who have been both angry 'mad' and crazy 'mad'. It is tangible, but it is not a solid object. I'd describe it more as a process where matter is changing states. Those of us who have even a rudimentary knowledge of chemistry should know exactly what I'm alluding to now. If not, my last significant hint will be that it is oxidization at a very rapid rate.

Many mass murders have been committed this way through the centuries. The tools required to do it are very inexpensive and much more readily available than firearms and ammunition are. In fact, many of us with a certain personal habit are probably carrying the tool to start the process in our pockets at this very moment. Committing a murder this way doesn't make much noise initially, though eventually there will be a fair amount of noise the whole neighborhood will probably notice and it's far from 'clean' as there will be quite a mess in the aftermath. There is a name for the felony that one commits in every state of the Union in using this approach, but I'm not going to state it because I don't want to give anyone an idea if it can be helped. Yet, what is being harnessed as a murder weapon in this instance I'm outlining is something that humankind has used to survive almost as long as we've walked this earth.

i know exactly what your talking about.

Use of anything but a gun would still at least give some people time to flee let alone good luck concealing a sword or bow and arrows.

well lets see, while people try to make "sense" of this, ill shed a little light on it.

the guy as those who knew the family, all say he was into the family thing (separated), they lost their well to do home due to foreclosure (separated), he was out of the picture, and being they were (separated) in the start of a divorce, i can see where it is more than possible.

even the media, and law just amaze me sometimes... we all know the hush hush on divorce procedings... wonder why? Forgot already American customs usually bend the husband over the barrel while the wife and courts find every red cent of worth the man is made of... EVERY RED CENT. Thats before the divorce is final. then you have the divorce, and of course, alimony. Why you men need to make your women go out and get a job.... they can earn for themselves vs being vulturious b!tches. When will people wake up. you want equal rights, the equal pay, but do nothing to earn it... yet you feel you "deserve" it. why is that?

nope there's one weapon you cant run from if your next to it and its been used a lot lately by terrorists.

Use of anything but a gun would still at least give some people time to flee let alone good luck concealing a sword or bow and arrows.

If a thoroughly wicked person is out to do someone in, all it takes is a bit of planning ahead to trap their victim in someplace they can't readily escape from. Most anything can be concealed or disguised to some extent or another, at least enough to make it so the victim can't be certain about what's going to happen until it's too late. If I read the article right, it sounds like Mr. Yazdanpanah either herded or else managed to catch everyone in one room. He shot them, but nevertheless could have blocked the usable escape routes (the doorway) and could have used whatever weapon he wanted to eliminate his victims one at a time. Nowhere to run!

As for concealing a sword, all one really needs to do is keep it effectively hidden long enough that no one (like the police) are summoned to intervene in time to prevent the crime. Wrapping a blanket or even gift wrap paper around it would suffice.

To conceal bow and arrows, usually the user (hate to use the term archer where a murder is being committed) would conceal themselves and the bow, instead. Behind a bush, the trunk of a large tree, or whatever else. Arrows are virtually silent and unless you see it coming, it will usually take several moments for what just happened to you to register. The same would be true with anyone next to you or following you out the door. This is one of the first things addressed in all the first aid training I've ever had. Something has happened, someone is hurt, immediate action is required, and everyone stands there in shock staring at the victim not knowing just what to do. If arrows were flying, standing next to the victim in a state of shock makes you a perfect next target.

In all cases, surprise is the critical element, with healthy doses of denial by the victims. They weren't expecting it, and probably couldn't believe it was happening, either. A lot of victims die where they stand because they froze in place refusing to believe that what they were seeing unfold in front of them was actually happening. This could be especially true when the assailant is a family member.

What I outlined in my post 5.8 above has usually been employed when no one was expecting it and wouldn't realize what was happening until it was too late. Otherwise, trapping the victims so they can't escape has often been done. If anyone remembers seeing the movie The Patriot, a mass murder was perpetrated in just this way. Nothing sharp, no projectiles, and nothing explosive was involved. Just plain evil and misusing something we've taken for granted since we wore skins and lived in caves.

I just don't understand HOW you read that story and came to the conclusion that Persian culture motivated this man. How racist and ignorant can you be???? You Seriously have never heard of any good ole WHITE Anglo Saxon Protestant men taking out their families? Never????

@31C: Yep...sad to say, this type of murder/suicide is only too common in our culture. Odds are that most of the perps are Christian, if only because of how many Christians there are in America.

But it's always easier to try to blame "the Other," than to look at how we ourselves might contain the seeds of that sort of atrocity within us.

Lord I hate that expression. "Snapped" implies sudden, unexpected explosive reaction. Dad did not snap. This was premeditated, planned - he brought the weapons with him, didn't just pick up a fireplace poker and start swinging.

what was that song by weird AL? o yeah its the night Santa went crazy, it almost describes this incident to a T.

Yep, Weird Al had it pegged: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HTGlUMvbhSw

So he kills his adult children? ( daughter 22). Heck, she could have worked and brought home some money!

No amount of alleged poverty is an excuse for this "mentally challenged" behavior.

I feel the same way, caligirlturnedoregonian. I had to scroll three-quarters of the way down the page before I reached your post, where you were the first person who showed any kind of empathy for this horrible tragedy. That speaks volumes about what we are becoming as a society.

We're living in very stressful times. It's just a shame that the gunman felt that this was his only option. Just a tragic waste of human life.

I'm SO glad to see someone agreeing! Bless you loveblue2, you have a good heart.

Close. First of all it wasn't the Roman Catholic Church when Christianity started. The term "Catholic" didn't enter in the equation until the 2nd century. Secondly, the leaders of the new faith DID bring in the pagan symbols and chose the Winter Soltice as the "birthday of Christ" to keep the new converts in the faith and give them something to celebrate while their pagan friends were off partying and celebrating the Soltice. Most all of the symbols of Christmas have a pagan origin. Biblical scholars have long ago determined that the birth of Christ most likely occurred in the spring, if the story of shephards in the fields with flocks of sheep is to be believed...they wouldn't have been out in December, it was too cold.

first off lifelongpeckerfanandstalker,

Jesus' physical birth was not in the spring but most likely in mid-end of September. We can find this from Mary's cousin Elizabeth who was 6 months along with John the Baptist. Her, Elizabeth's, husband was a priest of the order of abyah, on the eighth course which if you bother to research was in late december that year. Add nine months gestation, you get a September baby...so what ever biblical scholars you refer to are obviously as misguided as the team you support...

Correct, the person pulling the trigger killed his family. (and I did get your sarcasm). Sit a gun down on a table, and it won't be killing anyone all by itself. Of course, it's the same with baseball bats, fire irons, tire irons, hammers, knives, poison, drugs. Guess we should outlaw them too....

Same old lame rationalization for guns... yada, yada- apples and oranges. Tire irons, bats, and hammers aren't manufactured with the express' intent of killing people.

Tire irons, bats, and hammers aren't manufactured with the express' intent of killing people.

And neither are most of the firearms that are crafted and sold.

The most commonly sold firearms are rifles and shotguns, most of which are intended for recreational use of one type or another, and there are many recreational pursuits meant for rifles and (especially) shotguns (like trap and skeet competition).

Most handguns were really designed in the first place for use by military and law enforcement officers as personal protection weapons. Not all designs introduced are eventually adopted by any nations' armed forces or by any significant law enforcement agency, of course. Whether meant for official use or offered to the public, the express intent still is not that they are to be homicide weapons. Military officers are supposed to be protected by their armed subordinates, but failing that, they are issued a sidearm so they at least have a chance if hostile forces get close enough (within a few dozen yards) to endanger an officer, who because of their leadership position is an appealing target. Police officers in civilized nations don't go around shooting people to enforce the law, they take them into custody! But not everyone is 'cool' with that and occasionally members of the criminal element try to wound or kill police officers, possibly even ganging up on a lone officer. The service pistol the officer carries is the most effective 'last resort' threat management tool we've been able to devise to date, even though it is far from perfect. But they're not meant to allow the officer to go around executing people at will.

Saying that guns are meant for killing people makes about as much sense as stating that the only reason they sell cars is so people can drive recklessly, race each other on public streets, and crash into each other. All of those things happen far too often, but no one is making and selling cars expressly for those purposes! No matter how they look or what performance they may offer, they're meant to be operated only in a lawful manner.

medic400 but they can be, Santa could have killed them with anything that was on hand even radiator fluid in their food or drink, or with a bladed weapon in their sleep or a surprise chainsaw attack from behind, anything can be used as a weapon even if your blind.

You're wrong ashleysmom... An ear is 75% of a year.

At first the family was described as Hispanic/Latino. Not white.

There is definitely Hell and he'll stand before God on Judgment Day.

The gifts might have be all charged on a credit card..credit card companies lose out on this.

CanUSay, really?! You're going to put a post up about the gifts and the economy and not one word of grief for an entire family that got wiped out? Whether you meant it jokingly or in truth, it doesn't matter. We may not know the situation but I can guarantee you that with 7 people dead there are plenty of people left in the world who are mourning their deaths so you should show a little humanity and compassion.

CanUsay was just looking at it from the corporate perspective; you know, the ones who run this country.

Really?? All they did was mention the guy's name and you turn it into a forum on religion? What did that have to do with it? If he were a deep fried Texas baptist, would you be telling us he should have been running a car dealership?

I am going to play the devil's advocate here... (I DO NOT DEFEND THIS MANS
ACTIONS)

These kinds of articles are written in such a way as to inflame and shock people. It could be so much better if the stories are complete and people are educated as to how and why these kinds of horrors happen. These are hard times for a whole lot of people.

1.
The article says the neighbors and co-workers did not see a family in interpersonal turmoil. From all perspectives it appears they were a close family.

2.
I am not sure, but feel the father IS the head of this family. Like most American fathers, they feel responsibility to the family they created. He was financially strapped according to the article and lost his home. He has a daughter that is getting ready to begin her education in the medical profession. This is a very costly education. He might have been failing his daughter in his eyes.

3.
The article says nothing about how long they have been in the United States or what their immigration situation was. Was there a possibility they could have been deported? The article does not address any of this, but these ARE possible concerns. Did the fear (if real) of the family going back have played a part?

4.
There is a class of disorders that deal with the phenomena of parents killing their family. The parent CAN NOT separate the family as individual entities. They are all a part of the offending parent just as an appendage to their body is. I do not know the culture at all, but in these times, If I felt that I had let my family down, let my children down, that my failure could lead to my having sent them back to a horrible
nightmare, and in a country that openly hates and belittles my ethic group, I could see ending not just my life but also the future pain and torment for those I love. It’s just like knowing a parent or a child that is in so much pain and no hope for the future; we give a lethal dose of morphine in the guise of helping that pain.

Haha- nooo, the Republicans in general will find a way to blame it on Obama, haha. It'll be hard, but i'm sure the defacto GOP chairman and full time blow-hard Limbaugh will figure a way to do it.

No, it was George Bush's fault like everything else in this Country such as guns that kill people, pencils that misspell, and cars that drive drunk.

Actually this tragedy has everything to do with Obama! How could anyone not see this to be true unless they are complete morons!

Since Obummer took over there has been an increase in the amount of sympathy created for deadbeats who can't hold down a job and think that the world owes them a living. When these idiots buy into Mr uppity's message of "this isn't your fault but the rich bastards who did something with their lives" of course they get mad and to make matters worse these losers lose the only thing they "think" they own and that is their family.

So Obama's message has been take back what is owed you or make sure nobody else can take it from you! Our President is a traitor to this country and is guilty of treason and there is no way to get around that!