The Sylmar man who shot his aunt, and her dog, then killed himself, was the leader of a neo-Nazi punk gang prominent in the San Fernando Valley back in the '80s.
An LAPD source close to the investigation told KNX News' Emily Valdez, that the man who also set the home on fire before ending his own life was 55-year-old Richard Yapelli Jr.
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A look into his past reveals that he went by the name of Ranger back in the 1980s and was in a neo-Nazi punk rock band called Fight for Freedom, which morphed into a street gang known as FFF.
If you were a teenager in the San Fernando Valley in the eighties, there's a good chance you knew of his gang or had seen their graffiti all over the valley. They attacked members of the LGBTQ+, Black, and Jewish communities.
The rival of FFF was a punk rock group from the West side called Suicidal Tendencies, which was not racist and went on to have mainstream success.
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Emily Valdez spoke with one of the neighbors, who said he was not surprised by the news, "Oh, no, I'm not surprised he was pretty much trying to send a message to stay away from him. He always slammed his gate. He always said he did a lot of hunting and he had a lot of rifles. He told me he made his own ammo, pretty much telling me that there is no way to trace it back to anybody."
Neighbors also reported that Yapelli built a tower in the backyard so he could watch people.
According to the LAPD, Yapelli lived at the North Glenoaks Boulevard house with his aunt, identified as 68-year-old Phyllis Patterson, who was preparing to kick him out.
Yaelle reportedly had a wife and a 13-year-old boy, but luckily, they were not living at the property.
Police said weapons and thousands of rounds of ammunition were found at the site. A bomb squad was called to the location, as well as an arson detail. The bomb squad made sure the ordnance was rendered safe, the LAPD reported.
According to Brian Humphrey of the LAFD, firefighters found "heavy fire to the rear of one of three buildings on a 1.6-acre residential parcel of land, with the intense flames extending to a pair of adjacent structures on the property."
No other victims were found, Humphrey said.
"The all-but-destroyed buildings were soon `red tagged' as unfit for entry by the City's Department of Building & Safety," Humphrey said.
"With multiple firearms and thousands of rounds of ammunition discovered in the burnt premises, as well as what was believed to be ballistic ordnance, the LAPD Bomb Squad was dispatched to the scene, as well as LAPD Metropolitan Division Underwater Dive Unit to recover the deceased woman from the pool," Humphrey said.
"LAFD and LAPD personnel worked closely and effectively in a Unified Command during the response phase of the incident," Humphrey said.
"With the transition to an investigatory phase, LAFD Arson Investigators will focus on formally determining the cause of the fire, while the Los Angeles Police Department will serve as the lead agency in the overall and ongoing incident investigation, working closely with the County of Los Angeles Medical Examiner, as that agency seeks to positively identify the decedents, as well as the specific cause, time and manner of their death," Humphrey said.
City News Service contributed to this article.
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