SAN BERNARDINO, Calif. — Four children were grieving this weekend over their mother’s death in the July 6 collapse at the Big Four Ice Caves east of Granite Falls and holding vigil for their uncle, who lay unresponsive in a Seattle hospital bed.
Then Monday, July 13, they received unfathomable news: Their father had been shot to death late Sunday night, according to the Riverside Press-Enterprise.
In the span of a week, the children — ages 14, 12, 8 and 1 — had become orphans.
“This is a nightmare,” said Rachelle Randle, a family friend.
Randle’s 12-year-old son is close friends with one of the girls and is a classmate at Landmark Middle School in Moreno Valley.
“There’s so many of (her) friends out here that are hurting,” Randle said.San Bernardino police said the father, Adrian Martinez Cardona, 35, of Redlands, got into an argument about 10 p.m. Sunday at a bar, Lulu’s Hideout. Cardona was asked to leave, and he was shot as he stood outside near his vehicle.
No one had been arrested as of Monday afternoon, Lt. Rich Lawhead said, and no other circumstances of the shooting were immediately being released.
A person who answered the phone at Cardona’s home Monday declined to talk about him. Friends of Annalisa Santana, the woman whose body was found in the ice cave, are saying little about the family, at their request.
Randle said she has known the family for about two years. Santana and Cardona were estranged at the time of their deaths, Randle said. The children all took Cardona’s last name.
Santana and her children flew to Washington on June 30, where they met up with her boyfriend, Dustin Wilson. On July 6, they visited the Big Four Ice Caves, a popular — and unstable — tourist destination formed by avalanches in the Cascade Range.
Signs warn tourists that the cave can collapse. On the day Santana was killed, higher than normal temperatures were causing it to melt. Besides Santana, five people were injured. Her 14-year-old daughter suffered an ankle injury and Santana’s brother, David, 25, had a head injury, Randle said.
David Santana was in critical condition Monday, said Susan Gregg, spokeswoman with Harborview Medical Center.
Adrian Cardona Sr. had spoken with his children daily after their mother’s death, but he had been unable to go up to Washington, Randle said.
“His loved his kids,” Randle said.
Those conversations took place only days after Cardona got out of jail. On June 9, he was sentenced to 24 days in jail for violating his parole.
Cardona had numerous felony convictions, according to San Bernardino County Superior Court records.
Randle bristled at comments on social media that criticized Santana for entering the cave and Cardona for getting in trouble at a bar. Whatever their choices, Randle said, the children need the public’s prayers and support.
They have a large extended family to care for them, Randle said.
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