Covina Ca

Covina Police Chief Kim Raney was relaxing at home with his family around midnight on Christmas Eve. Lt. Tim Doonan was making late-night preparations for the holiday morning. And Det. Dan Regan was in bed, just starting to doze off. Then their phones started ringing. "Units are responding to a shooting in progress," the caller said.

It was nearing midnight when a large man emerged from his rented blue Dodge and approached a brick home at the end of a cul-de-sac in Covina. He wore a handmade Santa Claus suit with boot-covers, belt, beard, glasses and gloves. Hardly suspicious. It was Christmas Eve. But underneath were black street clothes, five 9-millimeter handguns and $17,000 in cash plastic-wrapped to his body. He was pulling a compressor wrapped in Christmas paper and primed with high-octane fuel.

Administrators at Charter Oak High School in Covina are investigating how a student on the yearbook staff was able to get fake names for Black Student Union members, including "Tay Tay Shaniqua," "Crisphy Nanos" and "Laquan White," into the published yearbook. Calling the incident a "regrettable mistake," Clint Harwick, superintendent of the Charter Oak Unified School District, said Friday that school officials had spoken to the student believed to be responsible.

Bruce Jeffrey Pardo stopped by the Montrose Bakery and Cafe about noon on Christmas Eve, said Henry Baeza, the cafe's owner. Pardo, who lived in the neighborhood just around the corner from Baeza, was a regular customer who liked to sit at a table by the window so he could see his dog waiting outside. "He always ordered coffee and cheesecake for dessert," Baeza said. As Pardo left that day, the two men shook hands. Pardo wished Baeza a merry Christmas and said he would see him soon.

The Ortega home, a tidy, one-story structure at the end of a Covina cul-de-sac, had been at the center of so many family events: pizza nights, poker parties and an annual Christmas Eve party where the large, close-knit family gathered to celebrate the holidays. On Saturday, it was a place for grief. Leaning toward the yellow police tape that encircled the ruins of the home, family members wrapped their arms around each other.

Surviving family members Sunday were grappling with how to best care for the victims' children after a Christmas Eve slaying in Covina that left nine people dead. At least 13 young people were orphaned after the shooting and two others lost one parent, according to a family attorney. "We have to help them," said Jose Castillo, a relative who came to the Covina home Sunday to pay his respects.

Covina police said Monday they believe that Bruce Pardo, who killed nine people at a Christmas Eve party, also intended to kill his mother and his estranged wife's attorney. Lt. Pat Buchanan said Pardo had had a falling out with his mother and felt she was siding with his ex-wife, Sylvia, in their bitter divorce. Buchanan said Pardo had found out his mother was invited to Sylvia's family's Christmas Eve party in Covina and had intended to kill her along with others gathered there.

As they had for years, the two families -- one in the city of Torreon in Mexico, the other in Covina -- called each other late Christmas Eve on a two-way radio. In Covina, about 25 people -- Joseph and Alicia Ortega, their five children and their grandchildren -- celebrated. In Mexico, about 35 of their relatives celebrated at the home of Lilia Llamas Sotomayor, their niece. It was about 11 p.m.

In the dining room of their Covina home, Joseph "Papa Joe" Ortega, his wife of 53 years and their children had been playing a late-night game of Texas Hold 'Em after Christmas Eve dinner. Their grandchildren played video games and hung out near the backyard pool. On the second floor, the Ortegas' 17-year-old grandson, Michael, pecked away at a computer. There was a knock on the front door, and the squeal of an 8-year-old girl happily crying, "Santa Claus! Santa Claus!"

A car whose driver apparently ignored lowered crossing gates was struck and thrown 75 feet by a Metrolink train Sunday afternoon in Covina, killing the man and his niece, and seriously injuring the man's 12-year-old daughter. None of the approximately 160 passengers or crew members aboard the four-car passenger train were injured. The train was on its way from Los Angeles to Riverside, said Sgt. John Curley of the Covina Police Department.