Ex-Officer’s Comments Frightened Him, Father Says : Crime: The man who shot his ex-wife’s boyfriend and then himself said he was angry that the victim lived in his former home.

Retired Los Angeles police officer Jon Gregory Pearce told his father that he couldn’t stand knowing that his estranged wife’s boyfriend was living in the Simi Valley house he once shared with his wife and three children.

“He said some things that frightened me very much about what possibly might happen,” his father, Wayne Pearce, said in a telephone interview Monday from his home in Mountain Grove, Mo. “He threatened suicide.”

Worried that their son might harm himself or someone else, Pearce said he and his wife, Lavona, warned their daughter-in-law Judy over the weekend to stay away from her Colleen Avenue house.

But when Jon Gregory Pearce, 39, showed up at the house Sunday morning, Judy Pearce and her boyfriend, Kirk James Krcmar, 37, were there along with Pearce’s three children.

Jon Pearce and Krcmar began arguing and Pearce went to his car to retrieve a .357-caliber revolver, police said. Pearce then shot Krcmar, who was standing on the porch, several times before turning the gun on himself, police and neighbors said.

Jon and Judy Pearce’s three children--girls ages 8 and 4 and a boy age 2--saw part of the shootings from an upstairs window, Lt. Robert Klamser said.

It was the first homicide in Simi Valley this year, police said Monday.

“I think because it was Father’s Day there was this other psychological thing going on,” Wayne Pearce said, sobbing as he spoke of his son’s actions. “He was not a bad person. I know he did this for the love of his children.”

Pearce said his son had been separated from his wife for 11 months and was waiting for his divorce to become final.

He said his son, who had been living with him since August, had been deeply depressed over his failed marriage and about the circumstances involving a stress-related retirement from the Los Angeles Police Department.

While serving as a police officer in 1986, Pearce shot and wounded a 71-year-old man who was chasing drug dealers from his Los Angeles home with a shotgun. The man died a year later, apparently from complications resulting from his wounds, and his family won $1.8 million in a civil suit against the city.

“He was upset at the Police Department because he felt they didn’t stand behind him,” Pearce said of his son. “He felt he had been sold out.”

Pearce said his son, who had been working in the claims office of a Woodland Hills insurance firm, moved in with him in Missouri in August when he learned that he might be laid off.

He said that when his son returned to California in December to visit his children and to pick up some of his belongings, he discovered that Krcmar was living at the house.

Pearce said his son became enraged and called Simi Valley police. Klamser said police officers were sent to the house and waited while Pearce collected some personal items.

“We were just there to protect the peace,” Klamser said.

He said Judy Pearce and Krcmar left the residence and there was no disturbance.

“They weren’t even concerned that (Pearce) was in the house alone,” Klamser said.

Pearce said that as time went by his son became more upset at the thought of Krcmar living at the house with his children.

“He said he couldn’t stand him being there and being a father to his kids.”

Pearce said his son left Missouri for Los Angeles last Tuesday to attend a divorce hearing. It was at that time that the former LAPD officer threatened suicide, his father said.

“I told him, ‘You must be there for your children, you can’t give up,’ ” Pearce said.

Friends and relatives of Krcmar, who worked in the customer service department at Preferred Glass & Mirror in Simi Valley, described him as hard-working and friendly.

“He was a good man,” said his mother, Janet Krcmar. “He worked hard and he was going to marry the girl.”

Richard Foster, who worked with Krcmar at Preferred Glass, said his friend had been divorced and had a young daughter.

“He was just a real good guy,” Foster said. “He had a big heart. He would literally give you the shirt off his back. He’s going to be missed badly.”

Nick De Girolamo, Krcmar’s manager, said Krcmar knew that Jon Pearce was in California. He said Krcmar had been staying with him the past few days and was going to continue to do so until Pearce went back to Missouri.

“He knew this guy was in town and if there was a confrontation it would not be pleasant.”

But Krcmar ended up staying with Judy Pearce Saturday night, Girolamo said. Krcmar left a message on Girolamo’s answering machine about 8 a.m. Sunday apologizing for not coming back to his house.

“An hour and a half later he was dead,” Girolamo said.