UPDATE: December 29th, 2011 @ 4:20 PM -

Yazdanpanah’s niece, 22-year-old Sara Fatemeh Zarei, sent a text to a friend just before 11am saying they had arrived at the apartment and that Yazdanpanah was there.

‘Soo we’re here. We just got here and my uncle is here too. Dressed as Santa. Awesome,’ she said in one text.

At 11:15 am she texted: ‘Now he wants to be all fatherly and win father of the year.’

Grapevine police Sgt. Robert Eberling said police believe that after Yazdanpanah shot his six family members, he called 911 at 11:34 am and then shot himself. 

Police arrived about three minutes later and found everyone dead. It appeared they had been opening presents around their Christmas tree just before the attack.

A recording of the 911 call released yesterday revealed someone saying: ‘Help, help’ and then ‘I am shooting people.’

Police said those words, muffled by the caller’s labored breathing, couldn’t be heard by the dispatcher on Christmas Day but were audible when investigators used a different software system. They believe the call was made by Yazdanpanah.

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Aziz Yazdanpanah, 56, had separated from his estranged wife in March of this year. On Christmas morning in Grapevine, Texas, Yazdanpanah came into an apartment dressed as Santa and shot dead many victims before turning the gun on himself. Among some of those murdered were two of his children as well as his estranged wife and it is believed that the separation is what led to this disastrous Christmas.

The victims have been identified as his wife Nasrin Rahmaty, 55, the couple’s two children Nona Yazdanpanah, 19, and her brother, Ali, 15.

Yazdanpanah also killed his sister-in-law’s family. Zohreh Rahmaty, 58, who was Nasrin’s sister, and her husband, Hossein Zarei, 59. Their daughter Sahra Zarei, 22, was also shot.

Although the family was having financial troubles and had to declare bankruptcy, no one expected that this loving father would take the lives of his children and other family members. Police had said it was the most gruesome gun crime that they had seen in this district.

Police dispatched at about 11:30am local time on Sunday, found the bodies in the first-floor living room of a two-story unit in the Lincoln Vineyards apartments, police said.

The 911 caller never spoke to police, and officers did not see the telephone when they arrived, officials said. 

Eberling said he believed police had to kick in the door to enter. No neighbors reported hearing gunshots, he said.

For a father to kill his own children is absolutely horrendous, and then to be so cruel and dress as Santa Clause before gunning down everyone, I just can’t possibly imagine what was going on in this man’s head. Money, despite it being a major cause for stress, should never be so important that not living seems to be the only solution. The children who were murdered through this had full lives to live and could have been responsible for doing something miraculous, but because you allowed the finances to become unbearable, you took their lives from them.

Daughter Nona Yazdanpanah

Nona's cousin Sahra Zarei

These children were innocent, and had to pay for your stress, unhappiness, and selfishness. You are lucky to have died because quite honestly, it would have been a better scenario if you had to live with the guilt of what you had done.

SOURCE

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