San Diego woke up to some terrible news yesterday:
The Sheriff’s Department released no new details Monday about the deaths at a rented condominium just off Orange Avenue in the usually idyllic tourist town (of Coronado), but family and others began to talk about the three men and one woman who died.
David Reis, 25, and his 24-year-old sister, Karen, were two of the dead. David Reis was a Navy F/A-18 pilot stationed at a Miramar Marine Corps Air Station training squadron, and his sister was a former University of California San Diego volleyball player who had been coaching high school and club teams, said their father, Tom Reis of Bakersfield.
People familiar with (the men) who rented the Park Place condo said one of the deceased was roommate Bob Reeves, another Navy jet pilot training at Miramar.
The other dead man is a 31-year-old civilian who lives in Chula Vista, according to the county Medical Examiner’s Office.
The shooting occurred just off the city’s main thoroughfare, Orange Avenue. At 2:20 a.m., Coronado police responded to a call of shots fired at the Park Place unit and found a man lying dead in the doorway of the residence.
Searching inside, they found two other men and a woman, all dead. There’s no word who was found where or if this was a murder-suicide — though sheriff’s officials have said there are no outstanding suspects.
The Reis siblings and Reeves were in downtown San Diego for New Year’s Eve and then returned to the condo with the Chula Vista man, according to 10News, a media partner of U-T San Diego.
Two young FA-18 pilots with everything to live for, a sister, and a still unnamed “third man” from Chula Vista.
This sounds ugly, and my heart goes out to the families.
Bet on “attempted robbery”
Will be interesting to see how this plays out. I have some hunches, but unlike the pre-Christmas massacre in N Texas, not good enough to state publicly.
Was interested that three JGs from Miramar were willing to split a 3BR in Coronado. Pocketing the BAH, or just living high on the hog? One would think they’d like their privacy, or be closer to work, but …
Your unstated suspicion is one possibility, and NCIS involvement could very well explain the cryptic description by sheriff’s officials that there is “no outstanding suspect” rather than the usual “no danger to the public”.
Very tragic for the families involved.
The story behind the story is needed…Two Navy officers would not let their guard down lightly and this was likely something they didn’t see coming.
There is too much of this type of incident happening in our society and I am unsure what drives it other than there is so much of this type of crime highlighted in TV & Movies. I see what the tube glamorizes and it is not something that I consider entertainment.
A terrible tradegy and one that shouldn’t have happened.
My heart too.
I’m watching a generation I cherish closing the gap and it’s going to be a poignant time for me and mine.
This is a tragedy. A huge tragedy.
How does the press know they came back from partying with the Chula Vista man?
Did the Chula Vista man kill himself?
If not, it seems to me there’s someone else missing.
Suggest you Andy Sipowitz wannabees keep your knickers on… and as Scott said above…let this tragic/sordid story play itself out. Best
Now, Snake, you know that wouldn’t be any fun. So, don’t be a stick in the mud and sit back and enjoy the wild, and not so wild, speculations with amusement.
You can be amused, can you not?
Perhaps not by such a story. Facts are always germane but we are not sleuths. We wonder aloud.
We saw another tragedy unfold with another FA-18 pilot there a couple of years ago. I dearly hope the USMC hung every single of those SOBs. All of them.
A man went to work and every single member of his family died at home. It is unbearable. My point of view.
…thats stick in the mud…Sir…if you please. Best
shoot, I thought he was an actual admiral or general or stuff like that….
Curtis, Not flippen likely…my smart mouth and early indications of the comming of the hollowing of the military precluded any realistic toughts of achieving lifer status…
…I made 04 while in the reserves (an absolute purgatory of pissed off recently RIF’ed officers)… during law school…ten years after which the brass had the good sense to retire my sorry ass from the IRR in 1986….and a great day that was. Best
I knew Dave briefly. He arrived in Kingsville a few months before I left. Always a bright smile on his face, never hesitant to help out. It is a tragedy no matter who was involved, but to know someone as bright and great as Dave was taken in this manner serves only to darken a black occurrence.
I can’t help but wonder, though, why Dave and his sister were singled out in the media coverage. There has been almost no mention of names, work, or anything else identifying or helpful to the story about the other two victims (assuming they are both victims). I would assume it’s in regard for the investigation, and while I’m glad to see the outpouring of grief for Dave and his sister, there were two others with (presumably) families, lives, and stories of their own.
Damnit.
I wish there were stronger words that could be used. But, alas….
Snake, Scott, et al are right about letting the particular facts play out, but dare I say that however it does end up, such things seem, unfortunately, to be a “sign of the times” insofar as such things seemed ABSOLUTELY unthinkable when I was their age circa 67/68. A Geezer’s “selective” rose-colored idealized memories? I don’t think so…the very nature of much of today’s violent crime, hell, society itself makes my youth seem like a tour in another Galaxy. And while life is dynamic and change a constant (reviewing my aunt’s 1915 EIU “Warbler” yearbook in which saying “hi” instead of “hello” was considered a maj social crime and un-spiked lemonade was the standard fare at parties for the generation which helped win WW I makes one realize how far the 2nd Law of Thermo has played out) I somehow yet feel that I’m sitting here watching the preview trailer for the new “Blase-Runner” meets “A Clock-work Orange” film..
Snake, Scott, et al are right about letting the particular facts play out, but dare I say that however it does end up, such things seem, unfortunately, to be a “sign of the times” insofar as such things seemed ABSOLUTELY unthinkable when I was their age circa 67/68. A Geezer’s “selective” rose-colored idealized memories? I don’t think so…the very nature of much of today’s violent crime, hell, society itself makes my youth seem like a tour in another Galaxy. And while life is dynamic and change a constant (reviewing my aunt’s 1915 EIU “Warbler” yearbook in which saying “hi” instead of “hello” was considered a maj social crime and un-spiked lemonade was the standard fare at parties for the generation which helped win WW I makes one realize how far the 2nd Law of Thermo has played out) I somehow yet feel that I’m sitting here watching the preview trailer for the new “Blade-Runner” meets “A Clock-work Orange” film..
This is incomprehensible in so many ways. I lived on Orange Avenue 30 years ago when I was going through FRS training. I just can’t reconcile it with that community.
This incomprehensible tragedy opens an old and painful wound for me.
My old college fraternity pledge-son became a proud Naval Aviator, following in the footsteps of his WWII, Corsair fighter pilot father of some renown. Tall and handsome, “Sticker” was a recruiting poster’ dream.
While on Christmas leave to his home long ago in Chicago, from NAS Whiting where he was a flight instructor, he tried to help a convenience store employee during an armed robbery. He later died of gunshots for his heroic efforts.
As a parent of now adult children and grandchildren, the loss of any is still my worst nightmare. While a service member – including their friends and family – who take on the Oath can reasonably expect some more than average life threatening danger in their duty, it is inconceivable that our finest can be murdered in such incomprehensible circumstance.
I did not “personally” know the two young officers and aviators. But I still ‘know’ them and am proud of them. Indeed this news was equally as devastating to me, as the many other fine aviators and others I have known and lost in the past.
I prayer for them and for their families.
Eternal Father strong to save….
Oh sir,
We’ve got the same fear. I think/know that I will always go up against the guns. No carry permit, no gun. I suspect my little one will too but she’s not quite nine.
The thing is to see evil and react as a christian.
I suspect you will never see that. I drove by WVU a couple of days ago. There was a worse shooting when the killer ordered all the males out of the classroom and then proceeded to murder all the girls left behind. I hope that all those ‘men’ rot in hell. They all dutifully filed out.
I’m a “Coronado Kid,” born and raised; still share ownership of my house there. This is even tougher than the weird “suicide” of the rich guy’s nanny last summer, and it hit many of us to the core. These kids were part of the fabric of the town, which melds rich, middle class, beach bums, retirees and active duty into a very interesting and lively island culture. I recite the mourner’s kaddish for all four, and pray their families and friends find peace and closure.
I have to also admit to a certain odd thought, when I first read the news wire reports that “NCIS had been called in to verify that some of the victims were service members,” I knew that Duty Officers, then CO’s and XO’s were getting phone calls and couldn’t help think about the phone calls up the chain and OPREPS that were about to fly. Glad I don’t have to do the JAGMAN’s on this one.
Stunning news from the Cornado Police who now say that the shooting was all done by one of the Hornet pilots who killed his roommate, the roommate’s sister and the third man before committing suicide.
Of all the possible scenarios to explain what happened this one would have seemed the most unlikely.
It is possible that we will never know what caused someone to do this. And I can’t imagine the suffering and shock the families of the victims are going through while wondering “Why?”
I saw that report. After reflection, I simply don’t believe it. I hope the authorities will dig deeper until they have a complete picture.
Surprised me too, but the motive in at least one online report is “jealousy”. Pretty young girl brings outsider home to a condo shared with her brother and two other pilots following a New Year’s Eve celebration, we must assume alcohol. A scenario does play out. An awful scenario, all the way around.
Jealousy??? They’re Naval Aviators. This woeful and tragic story feels wrong. More digging please. Home invasion / robbery / no witnesses is my theory.
My prayers go to the families and the community of friends affected.
To lighten the dark tale:
I always imagine my 1130 brethren could call for instant backup from Finnish aerobics instructors, expatriate Venezuelan beauty contestants, impoverished Norwegian tourists that can only afford half a swimsuit, or in extremis, oversexed Brit females with bad teeth. No need to be jealous in a target-rich environment.
Change 1130 to 13xx please. There is a different list for 1130s.
Two guns involved but one shooter?? Just adds to the sense that this narrative doesn’t pass the sniff test.