Seal Beach Hair Salon Massacre: Victims List, 911 Call, Murdered Ex-Wife Feared Shooter Scott Dekraai Would Kill Her, Insanity Plea Expected (video)
Posted By Vicki McClure Davidson on October 16, 2011
This is the face of evil madness:
Scott Dekraii, grinning broadly, was arrested soon after he was witnessed shooting innocent people in a busy Seal Beach, California hair salon on Wednesday. Eight people, including his ex-wife and the salon owner, were murdered in the bloody rampage | Credit: Daily Mail
Such a heartbreaking, senseless tragedy — innocent lives lost and many others shattered. Via Long Beach Press-Telegram, the list of the Seal Beach shooting victims:
Victoria Ann Buzzo, 54, of Laguna Beach, reportedly a salon employee;
David Caouette, 64, of Seal Beach, a bystander who was shot outside the salon;
Laura Lee Elody, 46, of Huntington Beach, reportedly an employee who had recently married and who many people knew as Laura Webb;
Randy Lee Fannin, 62, of Murrieta, the owner of the salon;
Lucia Bernice Kondas, 65, of Huntington Beach;
Michelle Daschbach Fast, 47, of Seal Beach;
Michelle Marie Fournier, 48, of Los Alamitos, a hair stylist and the ex-wife of the alleged shooter, Scott Dekraai; and
Christy Lynn Wilson, 47, of Cerritos, reportedly a salon employee.
The ninth person shot Wednesday was Hattie Stretz, 73, the mother of Elody, who was last listed in critical condition but improving at Long Beach Memorial Medical Center, according to police. She was one of three victims to be taken to the hospital, but the other two died there.
From LA Times, Seal Beach mourners frustrated at possibility of insanity defense:
A day after Scott Dekraai was charged with killing his ex-wife and seven others in a shooting rampage at a Seal Beach beauty salon, friends and mourners reacted with frustration and anger to the suggestion by prosecutors that the defendant could mount an insanity defense.
“No matter how mental you are, you should not be killing people,” said Nighat Afreen, 55, of La Mirada, a onetime customer of Salon Meritage who stopped by Saturday to leave flowers and candles for her former stylists. “He was a mad dog. He should be killed.”
Prosecutors plan to seek the death penalty against Dekraai, 41, who is being held without bail and in protective custody — a single jail cell away from other inmates, an Orange County Sheriff’s Department spokesman said.
Dekraai, who was diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder as the result of leg injuries from a 2007 tugboat accident, on Friday postponed entering a plea to eight counts of first-degree murder and one count of attempted murder in order to assemble a legal defense team. Attorney Robert Curtis asked for a medical order for Dekraai to receive anti-psychotic medication while in custody.
Orange County Dist. Atty. Tony Rackcauckas has said he would not be surprised by an insanity plea.
CRWE Newswire: Salon Shooting in Seal Beach
From Los Angeles Times, L.A. Now, Seal Beach shooting: Victim predicted ex-husband would kill her:
Michelle Fournier made no secret about the fact that she feared her ex-husband. She told one friend she thought he might kill her.
So when her brother Butch Fournier turned on the television Wednesday and saw that the Salon Meritage awning was the site of a shooting rampage, he immediately felt sick: “I knew exactly who did it and exactly what happened.”
Police say that Fournier’s ex-husband Scott Dekraai walked into the busy salon at 1:21 p.m. Wednesday. Armed with a handgun, he opened fire, killing eight people and wounding one 73-year-old woman. Fournier, friends and family said, was the likely target as the two were locked in an ugly custody fight over their 8-year-old son.
[...]
Butch Fournier said that Wednesday’s shooting may have been prompted by a recent custody report, referenced at a court hearing Tuesday. The report kept custody roughly equal between the couple despite Dekraai’s efforts seeking additional time with his son.
Steve Huff, who was married to Michelle Fournier for eight years, said that even though they have two children, they made their relationship work after the divorce.
“It’s just unfortunate that a madman had to derail everybody like this,” Huff said. “This guy was just a loose cannon. … She just wanted to get along.”
Associated Press, 8 Killed in Southern California Salon Shooting
From The Orange County Register, Seal Beach shooting aftermath: grief and support:
SEAL BEACH – Several days after nine people were shot and eight killed in the heart of this small, seaside city, community members continued to come together to start the healing process and help the victims’ families.
Early Saturday morning, groups of mourners had already arrived to pay their respects at Salon Meritage, the site of the killings.
Authorities say Scott Evans Dekraai targeted the salon because it was the workplace of his ex-wife, Michelle Fournier. The two had been involved in a drawn-out custody battle concerning their 8-year-old son.
The impromptu memorial at the site has grown to take up nearly the entire sidewalk. The northern wall of the building has almost been completely papered over with messages of sorrow and condolence framed by heaps of flowers, and candles that burned all night.
“Oh Lord, please cover our town with your angels of care,” one message reads. “Please heal through our grieving in the days ahead, and watch over the families that are left behind.”
Another urged people to gather for a memorial and fundraiser scheduled for 8:30 a.m. Sunday at lifeguard station 8 at the local beach. The flier gave a compelling reason for the gathering: “To continue to show the world that Seal Beach is not the place of the shooting. It’s the place of healing.”
While the crowd gathered, some salon employees boxed up their supplies, hoping to carry on their practice somewhere else while they decide whether to reopen the salon.
Jim Watson, who owns the shopping center where the salon is located, said he hopes it will return. He’s freed the businesses from the lease signed by salon owner Randy Fannin, one of the victims of the shooting, and spoken to the remaining employees.
From Daily Mail, The grinning ‘killer’ facing the death penalty: Suspected Seal Beach salon gunman charged with eight murders as even friends say he should be executed:
Grinning broadly behind bars, Scott Dekraai shows no sign of remorse as he is charged with the murder of eight innocent people at an upmarket beauty salon in California – brutal crimes for which he may now face the death penalty.
Hours after police named the hairdressers and customers who tragically lost their lives in the Seal Beach massacre, the former marine was hauled to court where he faced screaming abuse from family members of those killed.
As the suspected gunman sat quietly behind a cage in court, prosecutors announced they would seek the death penalty against Dekraai, whose friends have even come out to say that, if found guilty, he deserves nothing less than execution.
Dekraai, 41, the ex-husband of one of the victims, allegedly went on the shooting spree at Salon Meritage, just blocks from the Pacific Ocean in the seaside resort of Seal Beach, California, after losing custody of his child.
Those who were killed in the massacre included young mothers, a newlywed woman doing her elderly mother’s hair and a hard-working business owner, all of whom simply happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time.
KCAL News: 911 Tape Reveals Frantic Moments After Seal Beach Shooting 2-Minute Massacre
From Los Angeles Times, L.A. Now, Seal Beach shooting: Panicked 911 call placed after rampage:
A 911 call released by the California Highway Patrol Friday reveals a frantic scene in which a man with a panicked, shaky voice calls for an ambulance in the aftermath of Wednesday’s mass shooting at a Seal Beach salon in which eight were killed.
In the four-minute phone call, a man describes the shooter as a 300-pound white male wearing a white shirt. Scott Dekraai, 41, was later arrested in the killings.
The operator asks, “Why did he start shooting?” to which the man replies, “I don’t know, we were right across the street.”
When asked if the shooter is still at the scene, the man replies, “No we saw him walk away … we saw him in a truck down the street.”
Police said they detained Dekraai, of Huntington Beach, within minutes, stopping him about half a mile from the Salon Meritage in 500 block of Pacific Coast Highway. Officials believe Dekraai’s primary target was his ex-wife, Michelle Fournier. The two were involved in a heated custody dispute over their 8-year-old son.
Madman Scott Dekraii opened fire on workers and patrons at a Seal Beach, California hair salon last week - 8 people were killed
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