By Christina Warren, Adario Strange and Jonathan Ellis
Highlights: 3 things you need to know nowElliot Rodger, the suspect in Friday night's deadly rampage near the
- Authorities have officially identified Elliot Rodger, 22, as the
suspect in Friday night's shootings near the University of California,
Santa Barbara.- Seven people, including Rodger, were killed. Rodger apparently
stabbed three men in his apartment before going on a drive-by shooting
rampage in his BMW; three people were fatally shot on the streets of
Isla Vista.- Rodger, who had written a 140-page manifesto and posted a
threatening YouTube video, apparently shot himself at the end of the
rampage.
University of California, Santa Barbara, fatally stabbed three men in
his apartment before beginning his drive-by shooting spree on the
streets of Isla Vista, where he killed three more people and wounded
several others before turning a gun on himself, officials said Saturday
night.
As authorities continued to piece together a complex sequence of
events, which included 12 crime scenes at 10 locations, they were also
poring over a 140-page misogynistic manifesto apparently written by
Rodger, along with a YouTube video in which he chillingly laid out his
plans for revenge against the world and retribution against women who
had shunned him.
And in an emotional statement on Saturday, the father of one of the
victims blamed "irresponsible politicians and the NRA" for his son's
death.
The suspect
At a news conference Saturday night, Santa Barbara County SheriffBill Brown provided new details on Rodger and his actions Friday.
Rodger, 22, was a student at Santa Barbara City College who lived in
Isla Vista, known as a party area for students of nearby UC-Santa
Barbara. His father, Peter Rodger, was an assistant director for one of
the Hunger Games movies.
The police had crossed paths with Rodger three times before Friday.
In one incident, he was involved in an altercation; in another, he
accused a roommate of stealing three candles valued at $22.
In this photo from Elliot Rodger's Facebook page, the suspect is seen in a black BMW.
On April 30, sheriff's deputies visited Rodger at
his residence after a family member asked that they check on his
welfare. The deputies "found him to be polite and courteous," Brown
said, and "determined he did not meet the criteria for an involuntary
mental health hold." Rodger told the deputies about troubles in his
social life and said he would probably not return to school the
following year.The visit, less than a month before the killings, is
sure to raise questions about whether officials should have done more in
Rodger's case. But Brown called that type of visit routine and
commonplace. "I'm not going to go back and play Monday-morning
quarterback at this point," he said.
The sequence of events
didn't just engage in drive-by shootings Friday night. He first killed
three people at his apartment and then tried to enter a sorority house,
officials said. And he predicted the entire sequence in his manifesto
and YouTube video.
"It appears that he murdered three victims within his residence prior
to the shooting rampage," Brown said. "The three male victims had been
repeatedly stabbed." Brown did not identify those victims.
Rodger's next known move was to head to the Alpha Phi sorority, where
several members of the house reported hearing aggressive knocking for a
couple of minutes. "Fortunately, no one opened the door," Brown said.
In his YouTube video, Rodger said he wanted to "enter the hottest
sorority house of UCSB" and "slaughter every single spoiled stuck-up
blonde slut I see inside there." Apparently stymied, he turned his gun
on other students who were standing in the area.
He killed two UCSB students, identified as Katie Cooper, 22, and
Veronika Weiss, 19. A third young woman suffered multiple gunshot wounds
but survived.
Rodger then went to the I.V. Delimart, where he shot and killed Christopher Martinez, 20, bringing the death toll to six.
Rodger sped off in his black BMW, beginning a sequence of events in
which he fired more rounds at multiple locations, wounding additional
bystanders; engaged in two firefights with sheriff's deputies; struck
two bicyclists; and finally crashed his car. In all, 13 additional
people were injured, all civilians.
Of the seven victims still hospitalized, two are listed in good
condition, three are listed in fair condition and two are listed as
being in serious condition, according to Brown.
When the car finally came to a stop, deputies found Rodger "obviously
dead with a gunshot wound to the head," Brown said. When asked if
Rodger had been shot by police or shot himself, Brown responded: "It
would appear that he took his own life."
Police recovered three 9-millimeter semiautomatic weapons along with
dozens of loaded 10-round magazines from Rodger's vehicle. According to
Brown, all three weapons had been legally purchased and registered.
Victim's father blames "irresponsible politicians and the NRA"
The father of Christopher Martinez, who was fatally shot by thesuspect, delivered an emotional statement to the press outside the
sheriff's office on Saturday.
"Our family has a message for every parent out there: You don’t think
it will happen to your child until it does," Richard Martinez said.
He continued:
Chris was a really great kid. Ask anyone who knew him. His death has left our family lost and broken.
Why did Chris die? Chris died because of craven, irresponsible
politicians and the NRA. They talk about gun rights. What about Chris’s
right to live? When will this insanity stop? When will enough people
say, "Stop this madness"? We don't have to live like this. Too many have
died. We should say to ourselves, "Not one more!"
Rodger wrote manifesto
Meanwhile on Saturday, a 140-page manifesto, apparently written by Rodger, made its way to the press.Titled "My Twisted World: The Story of Elliot Rodger," it documents
Rodger's life and the events leading up to Friday's killings.
A sentence on the cover page of the document reads:
"This is the story of how I, Elliot Rodger, came to be.Mashable is reviewing the document; it has been published online in full.
This is the story of my entire life. It is a dark story of sadness,
anger, and hatred."
The YouTube video
Even before authorities officially identified Rodger as the suspect,his last YouTube video had circulated widely on Saturday. YouTube took
down the video, citing a violation of its guidelines, but it is still
available elsewhere online:
In the recording, Elliot Rodger identifies himself and says the video
will be his last. "Tomorrow is the day of retribution," he says. "The
day in which I will have my revenge against humanity."
After grousing that "girls have never been attracted to me," Rodger
threatens to kill members of a sorority house and then "take to the
streets of Isla Vista and slay every single person I see there."
Lawyer for Rodger's father says parents had warned police
A lawyer for Rodger's father, Peter Rodger, delivered a short statement to the media on Saturday.The lawyer, Alan Shifman, said that the younger Rodger "was being
treated by multiple professionals" and had been diagnosed at an earlier
age as "a highly functional Asperger's syndrome child." (In the wake of
other shootings, experts have repeatedly noted that people with Asperger's are no more likely to commit crimes.)
Shifman said Rodger's parents had been aware of his YouTube videos
"regarding suicide and the killing of people" and had warned the police
about them. He said authorities had interviewed Rodger but determined he
was "perfectly polite."
Statement from UCSB
The chancellor of UC-Santa Barbara released a letter to the community on Saturday.It reads in part:
On behalf of our university community, I want to express our
heartfelt gratitude to the campus police officers and Santa Barbara
County sheriff's deputies who acted quickly and courageously to protect
our students and other Isla Vista residents and prevent an even greater
tragedy from unfolding.
We are moved by the tremendous outpouring of sorrow and support from
our community, including our faculty, staff, students, alumni, trustees,
the UC Office of the President and Regents, elected officials, and
countless friends and colleagues around the world. We will continue to
draw strength and comfort from each other in the difficult days ahead.
The flag on our campus will be at half-staff this week to honor those
whose lives were so suddenly and tragically cut short. We will be in
touch as we continue to respond to these events. Our UCSB family is in
mourning.
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