This story caught us off guard. 'Had heard out of the corner of our ear that some crazy with a gun was at a standoff in the Rev. Robert Schuller's Crystal Cathedral in Garden Grove, California, but it turns out the perpetrator was a most accomplished man, 57-year-old Johnnie Carl, conductor of the Cathedral Orchestra, "a composer and arranger who worked with Celine Dion and John Tesh." He had apparently barricaded himself in a bathroom and shot himself to death after a nine-hour standoff that started just before a Christmas pageant was to begin, according to an AP report:
The first shots were fired less than two hours before the scheduled start of the cathedral's annual "Glory of Christmas" holiday show, for which Carl had arranged the prerecorded music. Some 100 cast members were preparing for the first of Thursday's two programs, which include the cathedral's world-renowned pipe organ and a Nativity scene featuring live animals.
"He was a genius arranger and conductor," said John Tesh, "one of those guys who lives music 24-7 . . . He was just a real jolly and energetic and gentle guy, not somebody who screams or yells." You have to watch out for those "jolly and energetic and gentle guys." Sometimes they're holding a lot inside, bearing a burden of sadness that no one knows till it's too late. According to the AP story, the composer had "grappled with depression" for years. The image of that Nativity scene with live animals waiting in the wings broke our heart.
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