Neighborhood evacuated

MONTROSE — A north Glendale neighborhood was evacuated late Saturday night after police found what they believed to be the second rental car driven by the Montrose resident who killed nine people in Covina on Christmas Eve.

Following calls from neighbors, police searched the vehicle, a gray Toyota RAV4 rented by Bruce Jeffrey Pardo, after they found a number of suspicious packages inside, Glendale police Sgt. Tom Lorenz said.

“That led us to believe there may be an issue with the vehicle,” he said.

No explosives were found, and residents were allowed to return home around 2 a.m. Sunday, less than five hours after neighbors first reported what they thought was a suspicious vehicle, he said.

Pardo, a 45-year-old electrical engineer, donned a Santa Claus costume Dec. 24, killing nine people at a holiday family party in Covina, later turning the gun on himself.

Since then, police have scrambled to uncover clues about Pardo, including why he rented two cars in late December.

Pardo’s first rental car, laced with explosives, exploded Thursday night outside his brother’s Sylmar house hours after the engineer committed suicide. His second rental car, which Covina police knew about after a car rental agency clerk recognized Pardo’s name from media reports on a list of past due rentals, remained at large until Saturday.

Neighbors called Glendale police at 9:15 p.m. Saturday after noticing the car had been parked on the 2300 block of Glenoaks Boulevard — which is about six miles from Pardo’s home — for a “few” days, Lorenz said.

At 9:30 p.m., detectives with the Covina Police Department — who had been looking for Pardo’s second rental car — and the Sheriff’s Department bomb squad arrived on the scene, Sgt. David Infante said.

Glendale police evacuated dozens of families during the investigation, sealing off the neighborhood a half-mile in each direction, Lorenz said.

The items in the car were not deemed dangerous, and the car was hauled off by Covina police, who said they will comb the vehicle for more clues about Pardo and the Christmas Eve murders, Lt. Pat Buchanan said.

Authorities do not know why the car was parked on Glenoaks Boulevard, and a search of the neighborhood Saturday night did not reveal any association between Pardo and the Glendale street, he said.