Grapevine is known as the Christmas Capital of Texas, and each year it transforms into a festive winter wonderland known for its holiday extravaganza.
On Christmas morning 2011, a family had just finished unwrapping presents at a home in the Dallas suburb when one of their own, dressed in a Santa Claus suit, opened fire in a brutal murder-suicide attack.
When police arrived on the scene, they discovered seven bodies among the scattered wrapping paper.
Aziz Yazdanpanah, 56, an Iranian-born father of two, murdered his estranged wife, their two teenage children, his wife’s sister, his brother-in-law, and his niece at the gathering.
His niece, 22-year-old Sara Fatemeh Zarei, texted her boyfriend just minutes after they arrived at the apartment that morning.
“Soo, we are here. We just arrived, and my uncle is also here. Dressed as Santa. “Awesome,” she wrote in one text just before 11 a.m. She texted again at 11:15 a.m., saying, “Now he wants to be all fatherly and win Father of the Year.”
Six family members were shot and killed within 20 minutes.
The man in the red and white Santa suit called 911 to report the murders, then shot himself.
A Christmas morning massacre
Three minutes after Yazdanpanah called 911, police arrived at the horrific scene at the Lincoln-Vineyards apartments.
The Grapevine police According to Sgt. Robert Eberling, when police kicked in the door, they discovered seven bodies among the opened gifts and scattered wrapping paper in the living room.
According to reports at the time, one of the victims was wearing pajamas while watching television.
Yazdanpanah shot and killed his estranged wife, Fatemeh Rahmati, 55, their 14-year-old son, Ali, and their 19-year-old daughter, Nona.
He also murdered his wife’s sister, Zohreh Rahmaty (58), her husband, Mohamad Hossein Zarei (59), and their daughter, Sahra (22).
Yazdanpanah’s wife was shot once in the head, while his brother-in-law was shot several times in the head, chest, and stomach, according to a medical examiner’s report. His son, daughter, niece, and sister-in-law were all shot several times in the head.
Two handguns were discovered at the scene: a 9 mm purchased in 1996 and registered to Yazdanpanah, as well as a.40 caliber, police said.
“I have been with this police department for 12 years, and this is probably one of the most tragic things that I have certainly been involved with,” Eberling told the media.
Santa shooter tried to be ‘all fatherly’
Sahra Fatemeh Zarei appeared to be annoyed that her uncle was at the gathering and that he was dressed as Santa Claus and trying to “be all fatherly.”
“Now he wants to be all fatherly and win father of the year because he [messed] up before,” her final text said, according to police.
The dislike among family members and the fact that Yazdanpanah was apparently told he wasn’t welcome to the gathering may have been the final breaking point, family friend Marc Beglari told police, according to records obtained by The Dallas Morning News.
Beglari, who is also from Iran, told police that he spoke to Yazdanpanah on Christmas Eve, and that Yazdanpanah had told him that “his sister-in-law had control over his wife and children and they would listen to her when she called him evil.”
But despite this, Yazdanpanah was planning to attend the Christmas morning gathering that was being hosted by his estranged wife’s sister despite feeling unwelcome.
“They denied him his pride,” Beglari said. “They took his family away.”
‘I am shooting people’
A recording of a 911 call captured the chilling last words of the gunman who admitted to the dispatcher that he was shooting people.
After slaughtering six people, Yazdanpanah made the call at 11:34 a.m. where he was heard saying “help” twice and then “I am shooting people,” followed by heavy breathing before the line went dead and he shot himself.
Police believe that before Yazdanpanah killed himself, he tried to stage the scene by placing one of the two guns used in the hand of his slain brother-in-law, Mohamad Zarei.
But investigators determined that Zarei had been shot with both weapons and that Yazdanpanah was the only one to fire the guns. Eberling said police believe he was “overwhelmed” and “decided to take his life instead.”
Eberling has stated that detectives believe Yazdanpanah’s marital and financial problems motivated him to murder his family, but that his exact thought process may never be known.
Yazdanpanah, a former real estate professional, was out of work at the time of the murders. According to federal court records, after pleading guilty to one count of filing a false income tax return in 1996, he was sentenced to three years probation. He was fined $1,000 and ordered to pay $30,119 in restitution.
In August 2010, Yazdanpanah and his wife filed for bankruptcy. Mashy Modjdehi, a friend of Yazdanpanah’s wife, stated that Yazdanpanah had always forbidden his wife from working. But when he became unemployed and their family’s financial problems worsened, he changed his mind.
Rahmati, who held a state cosmetology license, worked at two spas while also raising their children, according to a friend.
Rahmati moved out of the family’s Colleyville home in April 2011, just a few months before the shooting, and into the apartment complex two miles away.
Yazdanpanah remained in the Colleyville home, which was frequently without electricity as he struggled financially.
The massacre remains the deadliest crime in Grapevine’s history.
“We have never seen a situation where so many people were shot and killed,” Eberling said at the time. “This is the worst homicide we have ever had.”
