GRAPEVINE -- A conflicted picture emerged Tuesday of a Colleyville man believed to have fatally shot six people, including his estranged wife and two children, and then himself on Christmas morning.
One woman who was part of a happy hour group that included Aziz "Bob" Yazdanpanah described him as a sweet joker who adored his family. But another said she received a puzzling text message from him on Dec. 4, a few months after his wife and two children moved out of their Colleyville home and into a Grapevine apartment complex. The shootings occurred inside the apartment amid opened Christmas gifts, police said.The message, the friend said, went like this: “What do u call a guy who’s born in Austin and grows up in Dallas and then dies in Grapevine? ......... DEAD.""He was always telling a joke," said the friend, who asked that her name not be used because she doesn't want to get involved in the tragedy. "But when he sent me this, I thought it was weird. I didn't even respond."Yazdanpanah had attended several happy hours at a Colleyville restaurant with the two women and others in the past six months."He was just a sweet man," said Colleen Gedrose of Bedford. "He was outgoing, kind and adored his children."Gedrose said Tuesday that Yazdanpanah didn't talk about problems with his family."I never saw him angry," she said.On Christmas morning, police said, a middle-aged man dressed as Santa Claus fatally shot two men and four women and then himself inside a unit at the Lincoln Vineyard Apartments. Police said the attack was planned.Police have yet to identify any of the victims, but various friends and neighbors said Yazdanpanah was believed to be the gunman.Police recovered two handguns in the apartment, a 9 mm and a 40-caliber, at least one of which Yazdanpanah had owned for years. One of the weapons was found next to the shooter, and the other next to a victim.The 40-caliber can hold 10 rounds and the other 15, police said. There was one round in each weapon and police said both weapons were used in the shooting. But police declined to say how many rounds were fired.Some victims were shot multiple times, others were hit by gunfire from both weapons, police said Tuesday. "We found a receipt for one weapon dated 1996," said police Lt. Todd Dearing. "It wasn't like he just bought them a few weeks ago."Friends, neighbors and media reports identified the dead as Yazdanpanah; his estranged wife, Fatemeh Rahmati, who left her husband this year; their children, Nona, 19, and Ali, 15; Fatemeh Rahmati's sister, Zohreh Rahmaty, 58; her husband, Hossein Zarei, 59; and their daughter, Sahra Zarei, 22.Fatemeh Rahmati and her children had moved into the apartment complex in the 2500 block of Hall-Johnson Road, while Yazdanpanah stayed in the family’s home two miles away in Colleyville.On Monday, police were trying to work out the timeline of the bloodiest crime in Grapevine history. The victims were found beside open gifts near a Christmas tree in the apartment, according to police."We don’t know if [the killer] was with them or he came over later," Dearing said.The dead were "related either by blood or marriage," Dearing said. Three lived in the apartment, he said.He said police would not release any information about the victims until the medical examiner rules in the case.A spokesman for the Tarrant County medical examiner's office told The Associated Press that the victims had been tentatively identified, but that the office couldn't confirm the names because the state driver's license fingerprint database wasn't available on the holiday.Three of the victims were in the apartment when the man in the Santa Claus suit showed up, police said Tuesday. Three other family members showed up moments later.A victim in the apartment texted to a friend at about 11:16 a.m. Sunday saying that they were inside celebrating Christmas and that someone had shown up dressed as Santa Claus.In an interview with police after the shooting, an apartment resident reported seeing a man in a Santa suit at a car at about 11:30 a.m."Was he going out to get the weapons or had the shooting already occurred, we're not sure," said police Sgt. Robert Eberling on Tuesday.Police received a 911 call from the Lincoln Vineyards Apartments at 11:34 a.m. on Christmas Day, and a dispatcher reported hearing someone who sounded out of breath saying, "Help, help" before the line was disconnected, authorities said Tuesday. Initially, police said that someone had called 911 and no one had said anything.When a patrol officer arrived, he saw bodies slumped around the living room. No one answered the door.When officers forced their way in, they found the bodies around newly opened presents and a Christmas tree."There were no signs of a struggle," Eberling said.Property records show that a bank had foreclosed on Yazdanpanah's Colleyville house in the 5400 block of Sycamore Court in 2010, but he was still living there, neighbors said.Carrie Stewart and Fred Ditmars lived across the street for more than four years and described Yazdanpanah as friendly."He welcomed us when we moved in. He watched our house when we were out of town," Stewart said.Stewart and Ditmars recalled Yazdanpanah expressing concern about a year ago that his daughter was being harassed because of her ethnicity. In their conversations, Yazdanpanah mentioned that he owned a gun, Stewart said."He was very protective of his family," Stewart said.Another neighbor, Allison Baum, said she was close friends with Nona Yazdanpanah, who had hoped to be a lawyer someday. The two girls were classmates at Colleyville Heritage High School last year."We carpooled every day together. When her parents separated, I would pick her up from the apartment," Baum said.In February, Nona Yazdanpanah participated in a state competition in Fort Worth of students involved in DECA, an international organization that promotes careers in marketing, finance, hospitality and management in high schools and colleges, according to a school news release.Baum recalled Nona Yazdanpanah complaining about her parents fighting before they separated."I knew they were separated. I knew things were rough, but I never thought anything drastic would happen," Baum said.As soon as she heard news reports about the killings at the Grapevine apartment, Baum said, she texted Nona Yazdanpanah but did not receive a response."I just keep waiting for her to come here," Baum said. "They were all good people."Baum said the separation was very difficult on the family’s father. Baum said the family was Muslim but celebrated Christmas as a cultural holiday. The parents were originally from Iran.A memorial for the family is scheduled at 9:30 a.m. Wednesday at Parr Park, 3010 Parr Lane, in Grapevine.(Unfortunately, comments on this story have veered too far off course and into the realm of ad hominem attacks and religious bigotry. So commenting has been disabled. -- Editors)Staff writer Yamil Berard contributed to this report, which includes material from The Associated Press.
