Background
Rodger was born in London, England, U.K., on July 24, 1991. His parents were British filmmaker Peter Rodger (known for his 2009 documentary film Oh My God and his work as a second unit director on The Hunger Games) and Malaysian research assistant Li Chin Rodger, and he had one younger sister. His paternal grandfather was photojournalist George Rodger. The family later immigrated to and settled in the U.S., with Rodger being raised in Los Angeles, California. His parents later divorced, and his father remarried to Moroccan actress Soumaya Akaaboune, who bore his second son. Ever since he was eight years old, Rodger had been seeing therapists and receiving psychiatric treatment, including medication for a variety of mental illnesses and disorders. However, he refused to take any of the medication that was prescribed to him. Rodger's mother stated her belief that he suffered from Asperger syndrome, even though he was never formally diagnosed with the developmental disorder.
In school, Rodger was heavily bullied, and he claimed that he was unable to make any friends, though people later said that he was the one who rebuffed their attempts at being friendly. At some point, he started and began maintaining a personal YouTube account and online blog, both in which he complained about his loneliness and rejection by others. He also frequented online communities that fell into the manosphere, which has been commonly associated with misogyny and anti-feminism. He moved to Isla Vista on June 4, 2011, to attend Santa Barbara City College, but he later dropped out in February of 2012. From 2011-2012, Rodger was involved in a series of minor incidents in which he threw or sprayed drinks on couples or groups of people he was jealous of. On July 20, 2013, he attended a party and tried to interact with girls there, but was reportedly ignored. He then tried to push girls off a ten-foot ledge, but failed and was pushed off instead by other men there. He left but returned to attempt to retrieve his sunglasses. Instead, Rodger was beaten up by the same assailants. He told investigating officers about this, but they determined that he may have been the aggressor. According to him in his manifesto, this caused Rodger to begin planning his rampage.
Starting in September, Rodger used pocket money from his parents and grandmothers that he had saved up, to fund his rampage. He visited shooting ranges and bought three handguns (a Glock 34 and two Sig Sauer P226s) from three different cities. He also began work on a manifesto, which he would title "My Twisted World: The Story of Elliot Rodger". On January 25, 2014, Rodger performed a citizen's arrest on his roommate Cheng Yuan "James" Hong and accused him of stealing a set of candles that belonged to him. After being arrested, Hong pleaded guilty to a petty theft charge, but police dismissed the case due to insufficient evidence. On April 30, Rodger's parents saw his YouTube videos and became alarmed by them, so they contacted police. However, when the officers interviewed Rodger at his apartment, he downplayed the situation. They decided "he did not meet the criteria for an involuntary [mental health] hold", nor was there any reason to legally search his residence, so they left. At the time, however, Rodger had been planning his killing spree and had two handguns in his possession already; he claimed in his manifesto that a search would have ruined his plans.
| Classification: Mass murderer |
| Characteristics: Motive unclear; revenge for sexual and social rejection |
| Number of victims: 6 |
| Date of murders: May 23, 2014 |
| Date of birth: July 24, 1991 |
| Victims profile: George Chen (19) / Cheng Yuan "James" Hong (20) / Weihan "David" Wang (20) / Katherine Breann Cooper (22) / Christopher Ross Michaels-Martinez (20) / Veronika Elizabeth Weiss (19) |
| Method of murder: Stabbing with knife - Shooting |
| Location: Isla Vista, California, USA |
| Status: Committed suicide by shooting himself the same day |
2014 Isla Vista killings
A killing spree was perpetrated on May 23, 2014, in Isla Vista, California, near the campus of University of California, Santa Barbara, by 22-year-old Elliot Rodger. Rodger killed six people and injured thirteen others before committing suicide.
The spree began when Rodger stabbed to death three men in his apartment. Leaving the scene in his car, he drove to a sorority house, where he shot four people outside, killing two female students. He drove to a nearby delicatessen and shot to death a male student who was inside. He then sped through Isla Vista, shooting at pedestrians and wounding several of them, and striking four others with his car. Rodger exchanged gunfire with police twice during the killing spree, receiving a non-fatal gunshot to the hip. The rampage ended when his car crashed into a parked vehicle and came to a stop. Police found him dead in the car, with a self-inflicted gunshot wound to the head.
Before driving to the sorority house, Rodger uploaded a video to YouTube, titled "Elliot Rodger's Retribution", in which he outlined details of his upcoming attack and the motivations behind his killing spree, which he described as a desire to punish women for rejecting him and also a desire to punish sexually active men for living a better life than him. YouTube removed the video after the killings, saying it violated their guidelines with its threats of violence.
After he uploaded the video, Rodger e-mailed a lengthy autobiographical manuscript to about a dozen acquaintances and family members. The document, which he titled "My Twisted World", was made available on the Internet and became widely known as his "manifesto". In it, he describes his childhood, family conflicts, frustration over not being able to find a girlfriend, his hatred of women, his contempt for racial minorities and interracial couples, and his plans for the killing spree.
Events
Preparation
In September 2012, Rodger visited a shooting range to train himself in firing handguns. In November 2012, he purchased his first handgun, a Glock 34 pistol, in Goleta, after doing research on handguns and judging the Glock 34 to be "an efficient and highly accurate weapon", as documented in his manifesto.
In the spring of 2013, Rodger bought two additional handguns, both SIG Sauer P226 pistols, writing that they were "of a much higher quality than the Glock" and "a lot more efficient". He purchased the weapons in different cities, Oxnard and Burbank.
According to his manifesto, Rodger had saved $5,000 to purchase the weapons and supplies that he needed. Gun law experts have said that there was nothing in his known history that could have prevented him from making legal gun purchases.
Killing spree
The killing spree began at Rodger's apartment on Seville Road, where three men were found dead. They had been "stabbed to death", according to most sources. Police removed a knife, a hammer, and two machetes from the apartment, but they have not said which weapon or weapons were used in the murders. Authorities are investigating the possibility that all three men were killed while they were sleeping.
Rodger was seen sitting in his car in the parking lot of his apartment building at about 8:30 p.m. working on his laptop. He uploaded the "Retribution" video at 9:17 p.m., and sent his manifesto e-mail at 9:18 p.m.
Rodger drove to the Alpha Phi sorority house at Embarcadero del Norte and Segovia Road. He knocked on the sorority house door for a few minutes. After no one answered, he began shooting people who were nearby; two women were killed and a third was wounded. He then fired at a nearby couple; the man was wounded, while the woman received a superficial graze injury.
Returning to his car, Rodger drove two blocks to the Isla Vista Deli Mart on Pardall Road, where he briefly got out of his car and fatally shot a student who was inside the Deli Mart. His car was seen leaving the scene by four responding foot-patrol officers, but they did not identify him as the shooter.
He drove south on Embarcadero del Norte, on the wrong side of the street, where he fired at two pedestrians on the sidewalk, missing both. Embarcadero del Norte curves near a 7-Eleven convenience store, forming "The Loop", where he continued firing, hitting a woman in the leg.
Rodger drove south on El Embarcadero and shot at and missed a woman, turned east on Del Playa Drive, then made a U-turn and drove west, where he exchanged fire with a sheriff's deputy who was responding to a 9:27 p.m. 9-1-1 call, and struck a bicyclist. Students at the Isla Vista Church, on Del Playa near Camino del Sur, were completing a service of worship at the time and heard gunfire.
Turning north on Camino del Sur, Rodger shot and wounded three people at Sabado Tarde. Turning east on Sabado Tarde, he struck two skateboarders and shot another person at the intersection with Camino Pescadero. On Sabado Tarde near Little Acorn Park, he again exchanged gunfire, this time with three sheriff's deputies, and was wounded in the left hip. He turned south a second time on El Embarcadero, then west again on Del Playa. He struck another bicyclist, then crashed on the north sidewalk just east of the intersection of Del Playa and Camino Pescadero.
Rodger was found dead with a gunshot wound to his head; police said he had apparently committed suicide. A total of seven people died, including Rodger, and thirteen others were wounded.
Aftermath
Police investigated twelve separate crime scenes in ten locations. A search of Rodger's car recovered three 9mm semi-automatic pistols and more than 400 rounds of unspent ammunition, all loaded into 41 ten-round magazines. The guns were purchased legally in three different cities. Santa Barbara County Sheriff Bill Brown said that there was video and written evidence suggesting the crime was premeditated and that preparations took over a year.
Officers from the Santa Barbara County Sheriff's Office and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives began searches of the separate homes of Rodger's mother and father.
The media later reported the frantic attempt by Rodger's parents to intervene on the evening of the killings. After receiving a copy of the manifesto, Rodger's therapist phoned his mother. She checked his YouTube channel, where she found the "Retribution" video that he had uploaded minutes earlier. She called Rodger's father and they both left to drive up to Isla Vista. During the drive, she called police in Isla Vista and they arranged to meet when they arrived. Hearing a radio news report of a shooting in Isla Vista, his mother called the therapist who told her it was unrelated, saying that Rodger promised to act the following day and it would be unlike him to deviate from such details. When they reached the police station in Isla Vista, Rodger's parents learned that the news report was, in fact, about their son, and that he had killed six people.
A month after the rampage, the parents of the stabbing victims expressed anger and frustration about multiple aspects of the case, including the failure of police to take preventive action before the killing spree, the limited amount of information that the authorities had released about their sons' murders, more public interest in Rodger than in the victims, and perceived emphasis on the rights of the mentally ill over those of potential victims.
Victims
All six murder victims were students at the University of California, Santa Barbara (UCSB). All were declared dead at the scenes of their attacks.
The men killed at Rodger's apartment were identified as George Chen, 19; Cheng Yuan "James" Hong, 20; and Weihan "David" Wang, 20. Hong and Chen were confirmed to be Rodger's co-tenants according to an apartment lease, while police were investigating whether Wang was also a resident or visiting the apartment on the night of the killings.
The three who died of gunshot wounds were identified as Katherine Cooper, 22; Christopher Michaels-Martinez, 20; and Veronika Weiss, 19. Cooper and Weiss, both members of the Delta Delta Delta sorority, were killed outside the Alpha Phi sorority house, while Michaels-Martinez died at the Isla Vista Deli Mart.
Thirteen other people were injured, eight of them from gunshot wounds and four others by blunt trauma sustained when they were struck by Rodger's vehicle. The thirteenth injury was undetermined. Eleven of the injured were taken to hospitals; seven were taken to Santa Barbara Cottage Hospital, where two were admitted in serious condition, one in fair condition, and two others in good condition, while the seventh patient was released on the same day. The remaining four injured were taken to Goleta Valley Cottage Hospital, where they were all treated and released.
By June 14, graduation day at UCSB, all surviving victims had been released from the hospital, and five attended graduation ceremonies. UCSB also awarded posthumous degrees to the six slain students.
Casualties
Deaths in apartment stabbings
Elliot Oliver Robertson Rodger (July 24, 1991 – May 23, 2014) was confirmed by police to be the sole perpetrator of the killings.
Early life and education
Rodger was born in London, England, and moved to the United States when he was five years old. He was raised in Los Angeles. His mother is Li-Chin Rodger, a Malaysian research assistant for a film company, and his father is British filmmaker Peter Rodger, whose credits include working as a second unit assistant director for The Hunger Games. His stepmother is Moroccan actress Soumaya Akaaboune; his paternal grandfather was photojournalist George Rodger. He had a younger sister and a younger half-brother.
Rodger attended Crespi Carmelite High School, an all-male Catholic school in Encino, Los Angeles, and then Taft High School in Woodland Hills, Los Angeles. He graduated from Independence Continuation High School in Lake Balboa, Los Angeles, in 2010. He attended Santa Barbara City College (SBCC), writing in his manifesto that he dropped out of all his classes in February 2012. The school said he was no longer taking classes.
Mental health and social problems
According to his family's attorney and a family friend, Rodger had seen multiple therapists since he was eight years old and while he was a student at SBCC during his 1999-2000 school year. The lawyer claimed that Rodger was "receiving psychiatric treatment", but Rodger was never formally diagnosed with a mental illness.
By the ninth grade, Rodger was "increasingly bullied" and he wrote that he "cried by [himself] at school every day". During his time at Crespi Carmelite High, he was bullied by other students, who once taped his head to his desk when he fell asleep.
Rodger had a YouTube account and a blog titled "Elliot Rodger's Official Blog", both of which contained posts expressing loneliness and rejection. He wrote that he had been prescribed risperidone but refused to take it, stating, "After researching this medication, I found that it was the absolute wrong thing for me to take."
After turning 18, Rodger began rejecting the mental health care that his family provided, and he became increasingly isolated. He claimed that he was unable to make friends, although acquaintances said that he rebuffed their attempts to be friendly.
According to Rodger, in 2012, "the one friend [he] had in the whole world who truly understood [him]" "blatantly said he didn't want to be friends anymore" without offering him a reason for ending the friendship.
Screenwriter Dale Launer, who was a friend of the Rodger family, stated that he had counseled Rodger on approaching and befriending women, but that Rodger did not follow the advice. He said in an interview, "I first met [Rodger] when he was aged eight or nine and I could see then that there was something wrong with him. I'm not a psychologist, but looking back now he strikes me as someone who was broken from the moment of conception."
Earlier incidents
Relating an incident that occurred on July 20, 2013, Rodger "wrote that he tried to shove 'girls' at a party over a ledge, but he couldn't do it, and then men rushed to him and pushed him over". He said that he "felt a snap in [his] ankle, followed by a stinging pain" and "tried to get away from there as fast as [he] could". Realizing that he left his Gucci sunglasses at the party, Rodger returned to retrieve them but the "same people he had tangled with before began mocking him and calling him names, then dragged him into the driveway to beat him up".
One of Rodger's neighbors said that "he saw Rodger come home, crying" and said that Rodger claimed that he was going to kill the men who attacked him, and "kill myself". Rodger told investigating officers that he had been assaulted, but they determined that he might have been the aggressor. He wrote in his manifesto that the incident was the final trigger for his planning of the killing spree.
In July 2011, Rodger stalked and threw coffee on a couple outside of the Starbucks at the Camino Real Marketplace in Goleta, and in a later incident, threw coffee on two girls sitting at a bus stop in Isla Vista for not paying attention to him. In July 2012, Rodger purchased a Super Soaker, filled it with orange juice, and used it to spray a group playing kickball at Girsh Park, as documented in his manifesto.
Rodger originally sought to carry out his attack on Halloween of 2013, but reconsidered because "[t]here would be too many cops walking around during an event like Halloween, and cops are the only ones who could hinder my plans".
On January 15, 2014, Rodger accused his roommate Cheng Yuan Hong of stealing his candles. Hong was arrested and charged with petty theft; he pled guilty to the charge. Hong was one of Rodger's stabbing victims.
On April 30, 2014, about three weeks before his killing spree, Rodger's parents contacted police after becoming alarmed by his behavior and YouTube videos. He wrote in his manifesto that he had already planned the killings and purchased his guns by that time, and that officers who interviewed him at his apartment would have found the weapons if they had conducted a search of his bedroom. Santa Barbara County Sheriff Bill Brown later said that the deputies "determined he did not meet the criteria for an involuntary hold" and that Rodger told them "it was a misunderstanding".
Manifesto and online posts
Rodger's 107,000-word manifesto was titled "My Twisted World: The Story of Elliot Rodger". He e-mailed it to about a dozen people including his therapist, his parents and some of his other family members, former schoolteachers, and childhood friends.
In his last YouTube video, titled "Elliot Rodger's Retribution", he complained of being rejected by women and described details of his upcoming attack, also laying out his motivations and plans. Police said they were investigating the video. In the wake of the killings, the video was deleted from Rodger's account, but copies were repeatedly re-posted by other users. In the video, he says:
Well, this is my last video, it all has to come to this. Tomorrow is the day of retribution, the day in which I will have my revenge against humanity, against all of you. For the last eight years of my life, ever since I hit puberty, I've been forced to endure an existence of loneliness, rejection and unfulfilled desires all because girls have never been attracted to me. Girls gave their affection, and sex and love to other men but never to me.
I'm 22 years old and I'm still a virgin. I've never even kissed a girl. I've been through college for two and a half years, more than that actually, and I'm still a virgin. It has been very torturous. College is the time when everyone experiences those things such as sex and fun and pleasure. Within those years, I've had to rot in loneliness. It's not fair. You girls have never been attracted to me. I don't know why you girls aren't attracted to me, but I will punish you all for it. It's an injustice, a crime, because... I don't know what you don't see in me. I'm the perfect guy and yet you throw yourselves at these obnoxious men instead of me, the supreme gentleman.He wrote in "My Twisted World" that being of mixed race made him "different from the normal fully white kids". On one online forum, he said that he opposed interracial dating and made several racist posts regarding African American, Hispanic, South Asian, and East Asian peoples, stating that seeing men of these ethnic groups socializing with white women "makes you want to quit life". In one online post, Rodger wrote:
Full Asian men are disgustingly ugly and white girls would never go for you. You're just butthurt that you were born as an asian piece of shit, so you lash out by linking these fake pictures. You even admit that you wish you were half white. You'll never be half-white and you'll never fulfill your dream of marrying a white woman. I suggest you jump off a bridge.Further, in his manifesto, he wrote:
How could an inferior, ugly black boy be able to get a white girl and not me? I am beautiful, and I am half white myself. I am descended from British aristocracy. He is descended from slaves.In the manifesto, he outlined some of his plans:
On the day before the Day of Retribution, I will start the First Phase of my vengeance: Silently killing as many people as I can around Isla Vista by luring them into my apartment through some form of trickery.The manifesto specifically mentions a "War on Women" as the second phase of his plan for "starving him of sex", in which he describes:
The Second Phase will take place on the Day of Retribution itself, just before the climactic massacre. ... My War on Women. ... I will attack the very girls who represent everything I hate in the female gender: The hottest sorority of UCSB.In Rodger's self-proclaimed ideal world, he imagined that he would "quarantine all [women] in concentration camps. At these camps, the vast majority of the female population will be deliberately starved to death. That would be an efficient and fitting way to kill them all off... I would have an enormous tower built just for myself... and gleefully watch them all die."
In the manifesto, he also said that he planned to kill his half-brother and stepmother, but wasn't mentally prepared to kill his father.
Controversy over video airing
Several news networks, including ABC News, CBS News, NBC News, and MSNBC, limited use of the "Retribution" video out of fears of copycat crimes. The Fox News Channel refused to air the video altogether, instead showing five still photographs at the request of the network's vice president Michael Clemente. An ABC News spokesman, speaking for network president James Goldston, said, "James said that unless there is a specific editorial reason to use it, we would err on the side of not using it. We are going to be very judicious about the use of that video, mindful that its continued use turns it into wallpaper."
Reactions and discussion
Immediate reactions
California Governor Jerry Brown offered condolences to the families of victims and said that he was "saddened to learn of this senseless tragedy". University of California President Janet Napolitano said in a statement while at Laney College, "This is almost the kind of event that's impossible to prevent and almost impossible to predict."
Delta Delta Delta reacted to the news of the deaths of members Katherine Cooper and Veronika Weiss, saying, "Tri Delta is devastated to learn of the tragic event at the University of California, Santa Barbara and so very saddened to learn of the death of two of our members. Our hearts go out to their families and our sisters at Gamma Theta. Tri Delta's staff, volunteers and local alumnae are working with the chapter to provide support as they grieve this loss."
UCSB released a statement, saying, "Our campus community is shocked and saddened by the events that occurred last night in the nearby community of Isla Vista. Our thoughts and prayers are with the victims and their families who are grieving and mourning as a result of this tragedy."
Rodger's family issued a statement expressing their sympathies for the victims, saying, "We offer our deepest compassion and sympathy to the families involved in this terrible tragedy. We are experiencing the most inconceivable pain and our hearts go out to everyone involved." The statement was read by the family lawyer.
Rodger's parents later released a written statement in which they addressed their anguish over his actions, saying, "We are crying in pain for the victims and their families. It breaks our heart on a level we didn't think possible. The feeling of knowing that it was our son's actions that caused the tragedy can only be described as Hell on earth."
Memorial services
Students and community members gathered at Anisq'Oyo' Park in Isla Vista on the evening of May 24 for a candlelight memorial to remember the victims. In addition, the pastor of Isla Vista Church, one of the locations targeted by gunfire during the attacks, made church members "available throughout the weekend for students who would like to receive prayer or need to talk".
On May 26, UCSB canceled classes for the following day and scheduled a memorial service for that afternoon. It also set up counseling services and emergency housing for displaced students. On the following day, more than 20,000 people attended the memorial service at Harder Stadium. For the memorial, UCSB chancellor Henry T. Yang and executive vice-chancellor Joel Michaelsen said in a written statement, "This is a period of mourning for all of us. The moving candlelight vigil that our students organized on Saturday evening began the process of healing. On Tuesday we will remember and honor the victims of this horrible event and come together as an academic community to reflect, talk with each other and think about the future."
Gun control and mental health
The attacks have renewed calls for gun control and improvements in the U.S. health care system, with Connecticut Senator Richard Blumenthal saying, "A year and half ago it seemed like we were on the verge of, potentially, legislation that would stop the madness and end the insanity that has killed too many young people, thousands, tens of thousands since Sandy Hook. I hope, I really, sincerely hope that this tragedy, this unimaginable, unspeakable tragedy, will provide impetus to bring back measures that would keep guns out of the hands of dangerous people who are severely troubled or deranged like this young man was." Blumenthal also commented regarding the mental health debate, "And I am going to urge that we bring back those bills, maybe reconfigure them to center on mental health, which is a point where we can agree that we need more resources to make the country healthier and to make sure that these kinds of horrific, insane, mad occurrences are stopped. And the Congress will be complicit if we fail to act." California Senator Dianne Feinstein blamed the National Rifle Association's "stranglehold" on gun laws for the shooting spree and said "shame on us" in Congress for failing to do something about it. Pennsylvania Congressman Timothy F. Murphy, a clinical psychologist, said his bipartisan mental health overhaul would be a solution and urged Congress to pass it.
Richard Martinez, the father of victim Christopher Michaels-Martinez, gave a speech in which he placed the blame of the attacks on "craven, irresponsible" politicians and the National Rifle Association. Martinez later urged the public to join him in "demanding immediate action" from members of Congress regarding gun control. He also expressed his sympathy towards Rodger's parents.
Doris A. Fuller, the executive director of the Treatment Advocacy Center, said that California law permitted emergency psychiatric evaluations of potentially dangerous individuals through provisions, but such actions were never enabled during the investigation. She said, "Once again, we are grieving over deaths and devastation caused by a young man who was sending up red flags for danger that failed to produce intervention in time to avert tragedy. In this case, the red flags were so big the killer's parents had called police...and yet the system failed."
Some California lawmakers called for an investigation into the deputies' contact with Rodger on April 30. At the time of their visit, he had already bought at least two handguns, which had been entered into the California gun ownership database under his name, as required by California's universal registration law. The deputies were unaware of that fact however, because they did not check the statewide gun ownership database. They also did not view the YouTube videos that had caused Rodger's parents to contact them. The sheriff's office defended the actions of the deputies, as did other state law enforcement agencies. Some state lawmakers said they planned to introduce legislation that they believe would help prevent future such tragedies.
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