A Chilling Question Recalled

Five months ago, after Maria Calderon told Reynaldo Rodriguez she did not want to have a romantic relationship with him, she says he asked her a chilling question: “How would you like it if you didn’t have a family anymore?”

Calderon and other members of the family spoke in detail for the first time Friday at their Simi Valley home about the shooting and Maria’s relationship with Rodriguez, which she said was never more than friendly in the 20 months they knew each other.

The two had dated casually since they met at a party New Year’s Eve 2000, she said. But it wasn’t long before he was calling her incessantly and begging to see her, and it had turned into a one-sided attraction, she added.

“He was always depressed and sad,” she said, adding that he was taking medication for his emotional problems. “He was mentally unstable. It was like that saying, a fatal attraction.”

At one point, she said, Rodriguez claimed that he had HIV and had contracted it from her. But, she added, she took tests to prove otherwise and has never had the virus.

The last question Rodriguez asked Maria Calderon haunted others in her large extended family Friday, as they came back to their Yurok Court home two days after the deadly rampage on Wednesday that left three family members dead and two wounded.

Surrounded by friends and relatives, Maria and others in the Calderon family gathered in the living room of their $500,000 two-story home to talk about the tragedy--hours before Rodriguez apparently took his own life in Los Padres National Forest. Family members said they made a shrine to the dead as a way to make sense of a senseless act.

Maria Calderon’s 4-year-old daughter, Shantal Rios, was one of those who died.

“The last time I saw her, I dropped her off for lunch here. I gave her a kiss and she had cottage cheese all over her face,” she said, fighting back tears. “She kept saying, ‘No, don’t go, Mommy!’ I think she knew something.”

Throughout the day Friday, friends and family arrived at the house, many carrying flowers and food for a memorial service.

A wooden table in the living room was covered with family pictures of the dead--grandmother Esperanza Martinez, a grinning Shantal and 12-year-old Ricardo Calderon, as well as a pair of his favorite red soccer cleats.

As Maria sobbed, her mother, Ana Calderon, prayed for divine forgiveness for Rodriguez. Another child, 18-year-old Rafael Calderon Jr., said he wasn’t sure he would ever be so forgiving.

“The Catholic and Christian way is to forgive and forget, but that is only to an extent,” said the Moorpark College student. “I wouldn’t say anything to him, but I might kill him.”

Youth Tells of His Escape From Home

In chilling detail, Rafael, who escaped being shot by jumping out a second-story window, described the rampage from the time he heard the first shots.

He and his sister, Lucia Vargas, 19, were sitting at his computer working on a job resume for her, when he heard the first shots at about 3:44 p.m., he said.

Lucia was set to graduate today from the California School of Culinary Arts in Pasadena. Rafael said he jumped up when he heard the shots and headed for the stairway. He saw Rodriguez clutching a handgun and climbing the stairs at a brisk pace.

“I didn’t know what he was going to do until I saw his face,” Rafael said. “He looked determined.”

Rodriguez opened fire, hitting Vargas in the wrist and the stomach. Rafael jumped out of a bedroom window “out of total instinct” and hobbled off to get help. According to other members of the family, Rodriguez then shot Shantal before leaving the house and confronting 16-year-old Rigoberto Calderon.

“Rigo was in the garage and the guy came in and asked him if he was Maria’s brother,” Rafael said. “He said yes, and Rodriguez said, ‘You’re dead.’ ”

Rodriguez opened fire, hitting Rigoberto in the right thigh and wounding him. He then reentered the house and shot Ricardo in the kitchen near his dying grandmother.

Rodriguez bolted from the house, Rafael said, and fled in a blue 2002 Ford Explorer.

“I told my dad that me and him are the backbone of the family, and we can make it through this,” Rafael said. “I know Ricky, Shantal and grandma would want us to move on.”

“Oh my Ricky, oh my Shantal, oh my mother,” Ana Calderon cried, nearly collapsing in grief while staring at the table. “I know I’ll never be the same person. They’re the most important people of my life, and they’ve been lost.”