Azizolah Yazdanpanah Dressed As Santa, Shot Estranged Wife, Their Two Children: Grapevine Police

Christmas Massacre Victims ID'd: 'Santa' Shot Estranged Wife, Their Kids

(Recasts throughout with names of victims and suspectedshooter)

GRAPEVINE, Texas, Dec 27 (Reuters) - Police have identifiedthe man they suspect of shooting dead six people in a suburbanDallas apartment on Christmas Day as an estranged husband, andthe victims as his wife, their two children and three members ofhis wife's family.

Grapevine Police Department named Azizolah Yazdanpanah, 56,as the gunman in a Santa Suit suspected of shooting dead sixfamily members on Christmas morning before turning the gun onhimself.

Police identified the victims as Fatemeh Rahmati, 55,Yazdanpanah's wife from whom he was separated and their twochildren, Ali and Nona Yazdanpanah, aged 14 and 19.

Also murdered were Fatemeh's sister Zohreh, 58, herhusband Mohamad Hossein Zarei, 59, and their daughter SaraFatemeh Zarei, 22.

Grapevine is known for its wine-tasting salons. It wasproclaimed by the state Senate as the "Christmas Capital ofTexas" for its abundance of annual holiday-season events. (Reporting by Karen Brooks; Writing by Tim Gaynor; Editing byJerry Norton)

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