Accused Seal Beach gunman sought revenge: prosecutor

Scott Evans Dekraai, 42, of Huntington Beach, is pictured in this booking photograph released October 13, 2011 by the Seal Beach Police department.

SANTA ANA, Calif (Reuters) - A man California prosecutors say shot his ex-wife and seven other people to death in a Seal Beach hair salon in revenge over a child custody dispute was charged on Friday with first degree murder in their deaths.

Scott Evans Dekraai, 42, who is accused of carrying out the largest mass murder in the history of Orange County, was also charged with a single count of attempted murder, Orange County District Attorney Tony Rackauckas told a news conference in Santa Ana.

The lone survivor of Wednesday's shooting rampage at Salon Meritage, 73-year-old Harriet Stretz, remains in critical condition at a hospital in nearby Long Beach.

An emotional Rackauckas announced he would seek the death penalty against Dekraai, who he said was targeting former wife Michelle Fournier, a stylist at Salon Meritage, in the shooting rampage.

"There are some crimes that are so depraved, so callous, so malignant, that there is only one punishment that will fit the crime," Rackauckas said. "When a person in a case such as this goes on a rampage and kills innocent people in an indiscriminate bloody massacre, I will seek the death penalty."

Dekraai made an initial court appearance on Friday afternoon, wearing a yellow Orange County Jail jumpsuit and handcuffs and shackled at the waist as he sat in a caged area.

Orange County Superior Court Judge Erick Larsh agreed to a request by Dekraai's lawyer, Robert Curtis, to postpone the arraignment until November 28 so Curtis can assemble a defense team.

Curtis also asked the judge to order to ensure that Dekraai was given his medications, including two anti-psychotic drugs. Larsh said he could only order jail doctors to "do what is appropriate" for Dekraai's medical conditions.

'I HATE YOU!'

As Dekraai was being taken out of court, a woman in the audience shouted "I hate you! I hate you!" toward his back. Another man clutched a picture to his chest.

Prosecutors say Dekraai, who divorced Fournier, 48, in 2007 and was still battling her in court over custody of their young son, wanted revenge when he stormed into Salon Meritage and began shooting.

The former couple had been in court over the child custody issues on Tuesday and Rackauckas said the hearing apparently "didn't go very well" for Dekraai. He said Dekraai and Fournier had argued over the phone on the morning of the rampage.

"We believe that the defendant committed this unimaginable act of violence because he wanted to kill his ex-wife over a custody dispute over their 8-year-old son," Rackauckas said. "He was willing to end any life in his path, and he did."

The veteran prosecutor broke down into tears as he told a room full of reporters that, at the time of the shooting, the boy had been waiting in the principal's office at his elementary school for his mother or father to pick him up.

"That little boy is a victim," he said. "Now his mother has been murdered and he has to grow up knowing that his dad is a mass murderer. So what kind of sick, twisted fatherly love might that be?"

Fournier was at the front of the busy Salon Meritage when Dekraai entered and was one of the first two people shot, authorities say.

Also killed were Fournier's friend Christy Lynn Wilson, 47, salon owner Randy Fannin, 62, Stretz's daughter, Laura Lee Elody, 46, salon employee Victoria Ann Buzzo, 54 and clients Michele Daschbach Fast, 47, and Lucia Bernice Kondas, 65.

Rackauckas said Dekraai was wearing body armor and carrying three handguns and spent two minutes methodically shooting "anyone close enough to hit," pausing at one point to reload.

After leaving the salon, prosecutors say, Dekraai spotted 64-year-old David Caouette sitting in his sports utility vehicle and shot him in the head through the passenger-side window.

Dekraai was arrested a few blocks away after witnesses who saw him fleeing the scene described his vehicle to police.

(Writing by Dan Whitcomb; Editing by Jerry Norton and Cynthia Johnston)