Tragedy repeats itself with murder-suicide
FIVE years to the day after a distraught father killed his two children after holding them hostage for hours, the scene repeated itself in a small, quiet northern California town.
Carlos Joseph Ramirez shot his one and three-year-old girls to death before turning the gun on himself — on the fifth anniversary of the other murder-suicide in Antioch, 50 miles east of San Francisco.
"It is too eerie," said Joe Appel, a lawyer who represented the wife of the first killer.
In the 1993 incident, police gave Joel Souza ten minutes to surrender after he had held his children at gunpoint for nine hours. With one minute to go, his eight-year-old son and his five-year-old daughter before killing himself.
As a result, police chose to wait for Ramirez to give in during the hostage crisis, in the hope that he would eventually surrender.
But the ending was the same.
The latest tragedy ended 42 hours after Ramirez, 22, forced his way into the home of ex-girlfriend Cami Viramontes and took his two daughters hostage.
During the nearly two-day ordeal, police constantly talked with Ramirez by telephone. Friends outside held a banner that read: "Carlos, we love you."
Then suddenly, negotiations went sour.
Police said Ramirez cried out: "What is wrong with me?" Then, "Oh, my God, I love you," followed by the countdown, "5, 4, 3, 2 …"
Shortly thereafter negotiators heard what they believed was a gunshot, said police Lieutenant Rich Marchoke. Police were unable to re-establish contact with Ramirez.
In a bedroom of the house in a pleasant neighbourhood of well-kept single family homes shaded by trees, they found Ramirez and his younger daughter already dead. His older daughter, still showing some signs of life, died en route to the hospital.
Five years before Joel Souza, upset at the break-up of his marriage, had barricaded himself and his two children inside their house just a half-mile from the Viramontes' home.
The authorities had cut off Souza's electricity and water and, after a nine-hour standoff throughout a scorching summer day, they gave Souza, 35, 10 minutes to give up.
Nine minutes later, he killed his children and then committed suicide.
That aggressive police approach cost the city £110,000 in a settlement with Souza's widow.
[LINK TO THE NEWS ARTICLE ARCHIVE]: International News, July 14, 1998 -
http://archives.tcm.ie/irishexaminer/1998/07/14/fhead.htm
