It is easy to become numb to homicide, as frequently as it occurs in our own community and the nation at large.
Still, it is quite unusual to kill three people at the same time. The coordination of a multiple murder like this one is far more complex. The more degrees of freedom, the greater the chance of something going wrong and being apprehended. There has to be a motivation commensurate with the risk involved in murdering three people in a public place known to be frequented with late-night holiday shoppers and employees.
There is hardly another explanation to kill these three people in cold blood that makes sense except that they were perceived as a threat. And, unfortunately, because the three of them were so close to one another (they lived together and engaged in illegal activities with the same people), someone concluded that they had to be dealt with as a single unit.
Put differently, only one of the three being perceived as a threat likely put the other two at jeopardy.
Somebody in this volatile mix of crime, drugs, and dirty money felt extremely vulnerable to take on the task of murdering three people--at least one of which must have been looked upon as a serious threat to another person's (or organization's) freedom, livelihood, or survival.
Ilona, Gianni, and Sal (or possibly, only one of them) got way in over their heads. What may have started as something they felt was of limited risk led to a lethal association with heartless, savage animals.
This is what keeps bugging me too - why all three of them? Was only one of them really the target? If so, which one and why? The fact that Ilona was shot so many times initially made me think she could've been the target, but then I start asking myself why and it seems more likely that the target was Sal or Gianni and she happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time.
I wonder if we'll ever know. I feel so bad for all of them and their loved ones.