The Story of Elliot Rodger

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

• George Chen (19)

• Cheng Yuan "James" Hong (20)

• Weihan "David" Wang (20)

Deaths in shooting spree

• Katherine Breann Cooper (22)—shot near sorority house

• Christopher Ross Michaels-Martinez (20)—shot inside deli

• Veronika Elizabeth Weiss (19)—shot near sorority house

Wounded and injured in shooting spree

• Megan Carloto (22) shot on bicycle

• Keith Cheung (21) struck on bicycle by Rodger's car

• Bianca de Kock (20) shot near sorority house

• Patrick Eggert (19) struck on bicycle by Rodger's car

• Elliot Gee struck on skateboard by Rodger's car

• Chris Johnson shot in front of pizza restaurant

• Nick Pasichuke (19) struck on skateboard by Rodger's car

• Six unidentified others

Perpetrator

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.

Misogyny

The killing spree, videos, and written manifesto of Rodger sparked conversations about broader issues of violence against women and misogyny in society. Prior to the killing spree, Rodger indicated in online postings and YouTube videos that he would punish women for denying him sex and he would also punish men who had access to sex with women, while he did not. This motive and Rodger’s apparent sense of entitlement to sex with women has been described as misogynistic. On May 24, the Twitter hashtag #YesAllWomen was created as an avenue for women to share their experiences with misogyny and sexism and to share examples of how all women have experience with sexism and to respond to those who did not believe Rodger's actions were rooted in misogyny. The hashtag spread worldwide, reaching 1.5 million tweets and 1.2 billion impressions, and peaking at 61,500 tweets per hour on May 25.

Amanda Hess, writing for Slate, argued that even though Rodger killed more men than women, his motivations were still misogynistic because his reason for hating the men he attacked was that he thought they stole the women who he felt entitled to. Writing for Reason, Cathy Young countered that "that seems like a good example of stretching the concept into meaninglessness—or turning it into unfalsifiable quasi-religious dogma." Mary Elizabeth Williams, a staff writer for Salon, took issue with the media labeling Rodger as the "virgin killer", claiming that it reinforces gender roles with a "not so subtle insinuation ... that one possible cause of male aggression is a lack of female sexual acquiescence". A number of men writing for mainstream media publications such as Salon, Forbes, and The Daily Beast also wrote in support of the #YesAllWomen hashtag and the importance of highlighting Rodger's possible misogynistic motivations.

Comments and coverage of misogyny as the root cause have spawned criticisms of oversimplification and distortion of the events which included the killings of men as well as women and mental health issues. Chris Ferguson, a psychologist writing in Time, argued that laying the blame on misogynistic culture glosses over how Elliot Rodger was one particular mentally disturbed man. Some women, such as Samantha Levine, a columnist at The Daily Beast, argued that women who conflate everyday sexism (e.g., their experiences with dress codes and men whistling at them) with Rodger's violent attacks, risk trivializing these more serious incidents. Emily Shire criticized some #YesAllWomen tweets as trivial in the context of a mass murder, citing examples such as "I’ve never seen a hot husband with a fat wife on a sitcom."

Congress

The United States House of Representatives voted on June 10, 2014, to pass House Resolution 608, entitled, Condemning the senseless rampage and mass shooting that took place in Isla Vista, California, on Friday May 23, 2014.

The resolution expresses the sense or opinion of Congress, but has no legally binding power. Rep. Lois Capps (D-CA) said that Congress needed to take more action to stop gun violence, saying, "we must not let the drumbeat fall silent. Congress has the power to act and we must." Rep. Jackie Speier (D-CA) agreed with her, saying that "Americans, outraged by our inability to get anything done on the issue, are waiting for us to come to our senses and to act." However, The Hill reported that "no legislative action on gun control is anticipated at this point".

Wikipedia.org

 

Before Brief, Deadly Spree, Trouble Since Age 8

Elliot O. Rodger’s Killings in California Followed Years of Withdrawal

By Adam Nagourney, Michael Cieply, Alan Feuer and Ian Lovett - NYTimes.com

June 1, 2014

LOS ANGELES — It was the summer of 1999, and the parents of Elliot O. Rodger were battling over the boy’s deep and puzzling psychological problems as they struggled through a divorce.

Mr. Rodger’s mother, Li Chin, filed an affidavit describing Elliot as a “high-functioning autistic child,” and said she needed more child support to care for him. His father, Peter Rodger, countered with a Beverly Hills doctor, Stephen M. Scappa, who challenged that diagnosis, saying it failed to acknowledge the possibility of “depression or anxiety.” Dr. Scappa said that Elliot, almost 8 at the time, should be sent to a child psychiatrist for more examination and treatment.

Last week, days after Mr. Rodger killed six people on May 23 in a rampage in Isla Vista, Calif., before firing a bullet into his head, his estranged parents released an anguished statement, expressing their distress as they grappled with the final chapter of their 22-year-old son’s long struggle with emotional problems. “It is now our responsibility to do everything we can to help avoid this happening to any other family — not only to avoid any more innocence destroyed, but also to identify and deal with the mental issues that drove our son to do what he did,” the statement said. The parents declined to be interviewed.

For as long as anyone close to them can remember, the parents had faced concerns about the boy’s mental health — a shadow that hung over this Los Angeles family nearly every day of Elliot’s life. Confronted with a lonely and introverted child, they tried to set him up on play dates, ferried him from counselor to therapist, urged him to take antipsychotic medication and moved him from school to school. His mother gave her son the car he thought would help improve his stature — a black BMW — when he went off to college in Santa Barbara; he used it for his lonely explorations of the California coast, as a setting for his chilling farewell video and finally as a weapon as he sprayed bullets from the window and plowed down bicyclists that Friday night.

It is almost impossible to tell if a person struggling with any mental disorder might ever turn violent; the vast majority never do, even those who make threats and preparations to do so. “Most people who go through these steps never act out in a violent way, never go beyond contemplation of it,” said J. Reid Meloy, a forensic psychologist in San Diego and an editor of the International Handbook of Threat Assessment. “You can’t predict who will and who won’t.”

Peter Rodger told a friend the other day that his son had been an enigma to the family — distant, remote, unknowable. “He’s such a good liar that I didn’t even know he knew how to lie,” the friend recalled the father saying. Yet throughout his teenage years, friends of the boy and his family saw signs that something was wrong.

Simon Astaire, an author and agent who has been a family friend for over 10 years and has been acting as the family’s spokesman, described attending a Christmas party at Peter Rodger’s hillside home in Woodland Hills and wandering out into the cool night to come across Elliot, then 12, staring into the black sky. He said Elliot had lowered his head and started sharing his loneliness before turning back wordlessly toward the heavens.

“He wasn’t just a little withdrawn,” Mr. Astaire said. “He was as withdrawn as any person I ever met in my life.”

Cathleen Bloeser, whose son knew Elliot from elementary school, described him as an “emotionally troubled” boy who would come over to their house and just hide. “If I could have picked anyone who would have done this, it would have been Elliot,” she said. “My husband and I didn’t want our son to stay with Elliot.”

He fled two high schools after begging his parents, in tears, to rescue him from what he described as a bullying environment. When he was a sophomore, a school administrator said, he suffered a panic attack — standing immobilized in the hallway — until a teacher went outside to ask his mother, waiting in a car, to come get him. He apparently never returned to the school.

The older he got, the more his parents worried about his future.

“They were concerned: Could he be easily taken advantage of? Could he be an easy target for some kind of a scam or whatever?” said Deborah Smith, a Los Angeles high school principal who encountered Mr. Rodger at two of the schools he attended. “Would he be able to navigate the world on his own?”

He seemed to have grown only more withdrawn after he left home for college. After Mr. Rodger returned to his apartment one night after being beaten up at a party — he had, by his account, tried to shove a girl off a ledge — Chris Pollard, a neighbor, sought to calm him.

“He started saying: ‘I’m going to kill them. I’m going to kill them. I’m going to kill myself,’ ” Mr. Pollard recalled.

Eleven months later, Mr. Rodger acted on that pledge.

Torment in Schools

Ms. Smith, the principal at Independence Continuation High School in Van Nuys, a small public school with intensive individual attention from which Mr. Rodger eventually graduated, awoke May 24 to the reports of the massacre and, later that Saturday, a text message from a teacher: “Did you see the news?” it asked. “That’s our Elliot.”

Mr. Rodger’s parents sent him to Independence as a sophomore, but it was already his third high school. He had begun at Crespi Carmelite High School, an all-boys Catholic school in Encino. In a 140-page account of his life that Mr. Rodger sent out by email right before the killings, he recalled bursting with excitement at the prospect.

But that turned to dread the first day his father drove him to school and he spotted the “huge high school students” walking around. “I cried in the car for a few minutes, telling my father that I was scared to get out,” he wrote.

Before long, he withdrew from class work into World of Warcraft, the online interactive video game that had become his obsession. He waited for the halls to clear before walking to class. “They threw food at me during lunchtime and after school,” he wrote. “What kind of horrible, depraved people would poke fun at a boy younger than them who has just entered high school?”

His parents removed him at the end of the year, and sent him to Taft Charter High School, a 2,700-student public school in Woodland Hills. Almost immediately, he complained of being shoved against lockers and belittled by other boys in front of girls. Ms. Smith was working as a behavioral specialist for the school district and was assigned to help Mr. Rodger. One afternoon, she said, he was seized by an anxiety attack as he tried to leave school, stopping dead in his tracks in a hallway.

“He panicked,” she said. “He just couldn’t move.”

Ms. Smith said she did not recall ever seeing him at the school again. “We tried to get him to go back, but we were not successful,” she said. “It was too big, too overwhelming for him.”

He moved to Independence, a school of about 100 students with just three or four hours of instruction a day and a mission to help troubled children. The boy hardly spoke, spending even more time immersed in his video game; at home, he fought with his stepmother when she told him to get offline.

Ms. Smith, who became the principal of Independence the year Mr. Rodger was a junior, said he had displayed classic symptoms of Asperger’s syndrome: He was socially awkward, had trouble making eye contact and was very withdrawn, if very smart. “Sometimes at lunch, kids would encourage him to join their tables,” she said. “Sometimes he would. But even when he did, he would just kind of be present.”

His longest conversations seemed to be with one of the special-education assistants, with whom he would discuss World of Warcraft.

“He had this push and pull between his desire to engage socially and his fear of rejection,” Ms. Smith said.

Yet he was liked at Independence. Ms. Smith said that some of the students had felt protective of him, and that staff members had referred to him as “our Elliot.”

They lost track of him after he graduated and headed to Pierce College, one of a series of colleges he attended before landing in Isla Vista. About a year later, Ms. Smith said, the boy’s parents sent an email with an upbeat report on Elliot. It was the last time anyone gave “our Elliot” much thought, until he emerged 10 days ago, defined by his 140-page manifesto and videos.

“That’s not the kid that I knew,” Ms. Smith said. “He presented as very innocent, very soft-spoken. He never even raised his voice.”

Vagaries of Hollywood

At first glance, Elliot Rodger appeared to be a privileged son of Hollywood — the red-carpet movie premieres, the $500 Neiman Marcus sweaters, the Armani shirts and the Gucci sunglasses, the BMW. He was one of two children from the marriage; he had a younger sister. But divorce filings and interviews suggest a life colored less by Hollywood glamour than by the boom-and-bust cycle that came with his father’s career as a freelance photographer and director.

Peter Rodger worked often on television commercials and spent a few days directing extra shots for “The Hunger Games,” a job that got Elliot a seat at the movie’s splashy premiere two years ago. Elliot Rodger’s stepmother, Soumaya Akaaboune, is an actress who last year had a small role in “Lovelace,” an independent film. Its executive producers included John Thompson, who was among the show business acquaintances mentioned in his manifesto.

His mother, Li Chin, was a unit nurse on the 1989 film “Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade,” for which George Lucas was an executive producer; that connection gave her son an entree to other red-carpet premieres. He boasted in his manifesto that his mother was a friend of Steven Spielberg’s and even dated Mr. Lucas briefly. (Representatives of Mr. Lucas and Mr. Spielberg had no comment when queried about the connections last week.)

Peter Rodger’s career directing commercials was jolted when the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks depressed the industry. In a quest that was partly spiritual and partly a failed business venture, friends said, he decided to make a documentary. He visited 23 countries in two and a half years, shooting a film in which he asked people as famous as Ringo Starr and as obscure as Asian schoolchildren a single question: “What is God?”

The film, “Oh My God,” sold only a handful of tickets when released in November 2009 and cost Peter Rodger as much as $200,000 of his own money, drawn from equity in a home, according to his ex-wife’s court filings, in addition to years of lost income. “If only my failure of a father had made better decisions with his directing career instead wasting his money on that stupid documentary,” his son wrote.

During this period, the boy’s family seemed to be trying all the more frantically to help him. “His mom did everything she could to help Elliot,” said Philip Bloeser, who attended Topanga Elementary Charter School with him. Mr. Astaire, the family friend and spokesman, said that whenever he visited, his first question was about Elliot’s well-being. He said he had once explicitly asked Peter Rodger whether the boy could prove a threat to the public, and had been assured no. Still, Mr. Astaire said, he always worried that Elliot would one day take his own life.

While his parents saw a loner who would not leave his room, the manifesto and videos show a far more agitated young man. Mr. Rodger wrote of feeling tortured as he pined for “young blondes” and of heading out to a mall to buy designer clothes that he thought would make him more appealing. At one point, he set about to become a millionaire, planning a scheme to win the lottery and making several trips to Arizona, where he spent hundreds of dollars trying to win the Powerball jackpot.

He described seeing “two hot blonde girls” waiting at a bus stop. He flashed a smile at them and was ignored. “In a rage,” he wrote, “I made a U-turn, pulled up to their bus stop and splashed my Starbucks latte all over them. I felt a feeling of spiteful satisfaction as I saw it stain their jeans.”

Mr. Rodger also wrote of watching “a flock of beautiful blonde girls” playing kickball one day with “fraternity jocks” in a public park. The sight so enraged him that he drove to a local Kmart and purchased a water gun, filling it with orange juice. He described what happened next, after he returned to the park: “I screamed at them with rage as I sprayed them with my super soaker.”

The obsessively detailed self-published account of his life inevitably raises questions of how much was real and how much was hopelessly distorted by the filter of illness. Still, its writing is clear and precise. “It has none of the raving quality that you see in the writing of people with psychosis,” such as Jared L. Loughner, who opened fire on Representative Gabrielle Giffords in Arizona in 2011, said Dr. Michael Stone, a New York forensic psychiatrist who looked at the manuscript but has no connection to the family.

Retreating Into the Internet

In his last years in Isla Vista, Mr. Rodger had stopped going to classes and his life appeared to be conducted entirely online. There had always been World of Warcraft, but now there were posts on sites that drew sexually frustrated young men — including PUAhate, an online forum where participants ranted against “pickup artists” who had more success with women.

On PUAhate, a site that was taken down after the murders, Mr. Rodger expressed his disgust at women, questioning how they could resist his charms. He would urge other “incels” — or involuntary celibates — to fight back. “One day incels will realize their true strength and numbers, and will overthrow this oppressive feminist system,” he wrote. “Start envisioning a world where WOMEN FEAR YOU.”

The videos he posted on YouTube and Facebook were theatrical, even hammy, with him narrating scenic drives under palm trees, winking at the camera as he bobbed his head to bouncy songs like “Walking on Sunshine” — all to demonstrate to women how absurd it was that they did not find him alluring. “They should be on me,” he wrote.

Others in Mr. Rodger’s new community sometimes expressed solidarity with him, but soon turned on him: He was attacked as desperate, insecure, pretentious, entitled, bitter and whiny. And at times, as happened in high school, they mocked him for his small stature. (He was, by his account, 5 feet 9 inches tall and 135 pounds.) One taunted him as “an average looking manlet,” provoking a response from Mr. Rodger.

“I am a drop-dead gorgeous, fabulous, stylish, exotic gem among thousands of rocks,” he wrote.

As Mr. Rodger’s “Day of Retribution,” as he called it, approached, there were signs of what he was plotting. One poster on Bodybuilding.com, another website where he shared his views, noted that Mr. Rodger had taken down a video titled “Why Do Girls Hate Me So Much?” This person said the video had made him look like a serial killer. “I’m not trying to be mean, but the creepy vibe that you give off in those videos is likely the major reason that you can’t get girls,” he wrote.

Mr. Rodger’s response now seems particularly chilling.

“My parents discovered the videos, so I temporarily took them down,” he wrote. “They will be back up in a few days, along with more videos I’ve filmed.”

On the night of the killings, members of Mr. Rodger’s online world instantly drew the connection between the violence in Isla Vista and the man they had been jousting with online.

“Could someone tip off the police just in case?” one wrote, even as six people had already died at Mr. Rodger’s hand.

“Why?” another asked.

“Don’t,” someone else posted. “Whatever happens. We didn’t do anything so just let it happen if it does.”

 

Virgin killer's two roommates he killed in rampage were set to move out next term because he was so strange

• Elliot Rodger's six victims - all UCSB students - have now been named

• He is first alleged to have stabbed his two roommates - Weihan Wang, 20, and Cheng Yuan Hong, 20

• Friends of Wang say he described Rodger as 'strange' and that he and Yuan Hong had planned to move out at the end of the semister

• A third student also found dead at Rodger's apartment was George Chen, 19

• They include sorority sisters Veronika Weiss, 19, and Katie Cooper, 22

• A third victim, Christopher Michael-Martinez, 20, was a sophomore student and an only child

• Rodger also died of a self-inflicted gunshot wound to the head

By Will Payne In Isla Vista, California and Snejana Farberov and David Mccormack - DailyMail.com

May 26, 2014

A friend of Elliot Rodger’s two roommates who were slaughtered on Friday night, has revealed that the students had planned to stop sharing with the killer because they found him ‘strange.’

Weihan Wang, 20, of Fremont, and Cheng Yuan Hong, 20, of San Jose, were both stabbed to death by Rodger on Friday at the apartment they had shared with him.

The body of another UCSB student, George Chen, 19, of San Jose, was also found at the apartment He didn’t live in the apartment.

All three victims were UCSB students. They were found deceased with multiple stab wounds in Rodger's apartment located in the 6500 block of Seville Road in Isla Vista.

Wang, graduated from Fremont Christian School and was a sophomore at UCSB, majoring in engineering.

According to friends of his who spoke to ABC7, he and Hong had said they felt uncomfortable living with Rodger and had described him as ‘strange.’

They were planning to move elsewhere at the end of the semester.

Hong had recently been accused of stealing candles from Rodger.

The Santa Barbara County Sheriff's Office mentioned the case at a Saturday press conference, saying Rodger contacted the sheriff's office, reporting his roommates had stolen candles. Hong had been charged with petty theft, after pleading guilty.

'They were really good kids,' a neighbor at Rodger's apartment complex told ABC7. 'They were so quiet. They were extremely smart.'

All six victims have now been identified in the Isla Vista killing spree that left seven people dead, including gunman Elliot Rodger, 22.

His other three victims were students Chris Michael-Martinez, 20, Katherine Cooper, 22, and Veronika Weiss, 19, all of whom died after being shot.

Cooper and Weiss were both members of the same sorority. They were shot and killed while standing near the Alpha Phi sorority house.

Weiss, a first-year student, had been a water polo player at Westlake High School who earned league honors during her senior year, according to the Thousand Oaks Acorn newspaper.

Her father, Bob Weiss, told KPCC that his daughter was the kind of person who often reached out to awkward young men who felt like outsiders at school.

'It's ironic. She hung out with a lot of the scholarly students at school. Some of the boys, they gravitated to her - not as boyfriend/girlfriend so much. If they were a nerdy kid who felt out of place, Veronika would welcome them,' said Weiss.

'She was everybody's daughter. She was a wonderful citizen of this world.'

Cooper, a resident of Chino Hills, California, was about to graduate with a degree in art history.

'She was a self-proclaimed princess and I love her for that,' said her friend Courtney Benjamin. 'And I know she has a crown on her head today.'

Andrew Notohamiprodjo was Cooper's ballroom dance teacher three years ago and later supervised her as a teaching assistant in ballroom dance. Cooper was looking forward to graduating but planned to stay in town another year, he said.

'She was a lot of fun, super forward,' he said. Cooper graduated from Ruben S. Ayala High School in Chino Hills in 2010.

Michaels-Martinez, 20, was an English major from Los Osos, California, who had planned to go to London next year and to law school after graduation.

His distraught father, Richard Martinez, made an impassioned outburst on Saturday, blaming America's gun laws for his son's untimely death.

'Our son Christopher and six others are dead,' he told reporters gathered outside a sheriff's station for a news conference. 'You don't think it'll happen to your child until it does.'

Martinez choked back tears as he spoke, then grew angrier as he talked about gun laws and lobbyists.

'The talk about gun rights. What about Chris' right to live?' Martinez said. 'When will enough people say: 'Stop this madness! We don't have to live like this! Too many people have died!

'Why did Chris die? Chris died because of craven, irresponsible politicians and the NRA,' Martinez said.

He then punctuated his words as he said, 'We should say to ourselves: "Not! One! More!"' before dissolving into tears and falling to his knees as he stepped from the podium.

Friends said Michaels-Martinez, who served as residential adviser at a dorm last year, was the kind of guy who would welcome strangers into his home.

According to her Facebook page, victim Katie Cooper, 22, majored art history and archeology at UCSB.

'She was a shining star,' Cooper’s devastated aunt, Stacy Simmer, described the slain young woman.

Simmer said San Bernardino sheriff’s deputies came to her sister’s house at 10am Saturday and told her that Katie had been killed in a drive-by shooting.

‘I was on my way to church and my brother-in-law, Dan, called me and said, "Stacy, are you driving? I need you to pull over because I have something terrible to tell you,”’ Ms Simmer recalled. ‘”There was a guy in a car and he was driving around shooting people, and Katie was one of them and she was killed.”’

The distraught aunt went on, saying: ‘Katie was the apple of all of our eyes… She had a 4.8 GPA and did a lot of charity fundraising for St Jude’s Children's hospital.

‘She was studying archeology and she was in in a wonderful sorority.

‘Her parents, Katie and Dan, left for Santa Barbara as soon as they heard. Her two brothers, Nick, 26, a chemist in Colorado, and Jon, still in college, are on their way there now. They were as close as any siblings can be.’

Stacy Simmer said she was told by her sister that when her niece’s body is released to the family sometime next week, she will be laid to rest in their local Catholic church.

Richard Martinez, Christopher's father, said of his son: 'He was an English major and he wanted to go to law school. He grades were excellent.

'Both my wife and I are attorneys and I wasn't thrilled about him doing that, but we didn't want to argue with him. He was an only child.'

Rodger's father, Peter, has released a statement via his lawyer. It said: 'The Rodger family offers their 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 everybody involved.'

It came as friends and relatives of the gunman shared their shock and heartache at what unfolded in the early hours of Saturday.

‘Oh my God, my God. This is terrible,’ said Christian Rivas, a close friend and neighbor of Elliot Rodger’s 18 year-old sister, Georgia, when asked about Friday’s tragedy.

‘I was hanging out with Georgia till two o’clock this morning at the local park and she was happy and laughing - she had no idea what was going on with her brother. She must be devastated - I feel so bad for her…and the victims.”

‘She was always worried about Elliot. She would say that she didn’t understand him because he was always such a loner - he didn’t want to have anything to do with anyone else and he had no friends.

‘Georgia said that when they did talk, they would often fight because he didn’t seem to be interested in anything or anyone. She couldn’t relate late to him and he was so anti-social.”

Christian, 19, lives around the corner from the neat, three-bedroom home on quiet Windom Steet in West Hills - about 25 miles north west of Los Angeles - where Elliot’s mother, ‘Chin’ Rodger, 53 lives with Georgia.

‘Elliot wasn’t really living here all the time any more but he stayed here a lot,’ added Christian, who attended nearby El Camino High School, the same school both Elliot and Georgia went to.

‘When I would go to their house to see Georgia, if Elliot was in he would never come out into the living room and talk. He always stayed locked in his bedroom by himself.

‘He always kept very much to himself. When he did go out he would sometimes just drive round the neighborhood aimlessly in his car - I think it was a black BMW.

‘Georgia had a boyfriend once who just couldn’t figure Elliot out and called him a “real weirdo.” The boyfriend would say “hi” to him but Elliot wouldn’t say a word. He’d just go to his bedroom and slam the door.

‘The only person he spent time with was his mother. I think he was quite close to her. His mom is very sweet and nice and I think she gets on well with Elliot and Georgia’s dad, even though they’re divorced.

‘I feel so sorry for Georgia and her mom and dad. They’re a really nice family and this is going to devastate them. Elliot was a strange guy and Georgia did worry about him a lot. But something as horrific and violent as this - she could never have imagined anything so awful happening.'

Authorities are examining a video posted on social media by the shooter in which he rants about women who supposedly rejected his advances.

The video is called Elliot Rodger's Retribution.

Rodger, a Santa Barbara City College Student and Isla Vista resident, according to his social media accounts unleashed a tirade about his 'loneliness, rejection, and unfulfilled desires,' and blames women for preferring 'obnoxious brutes' to him, 'the supreme gentlemen.'

'I'm 22 years old and I'm still a virgin. I've never even kissed a girl,' he says in the video.

'College is the time when everyone experiences those things such as sex and fun and pleasure. But in 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,' he says in the video, which runs to almost seven minutes.

He repeatedly promises to 'punish' women and lays out his plan for 'retribution.'

'I'm going to enter the hottest sorority house of UCSB and I will slaughter every single spoilt, stuck-up, blonde s**t that I see inside there. All those girls that I've desired so much, they would've all rejected me and looked down on me as an inferior man if I ever made a sexual advance towards them,' he says.

'I'll take great pleasure in slaughtering all of you. You will finally see that I am, in truth, the superior one. The true alpha male,' he laughs like a maniacal movie villain. 'Yes... After I have annihilated every single girl in the sorority house I will take to the streets of Isla Vista and slay every single person I see there. All those popular kids who live such lives of hedonistic pleasure...'

His YouTube account contains numerous other videos in which Rodger talks of his loneliness and anger at the women he says snub him.

He called police several weeks ago after being alarmed by YouTube videos 'regarding suicide and the killing of people,' a lawyer said Saturday.

Police interviewed Elliot Rodger and found him to be a 'perfectly polite, kind and wonderful human,' family attorney Alan Shifman said.

A three-week old video called 'Another sunny day in Santa Barbara' include the description 'I temporarily took all of my Vlog's down due to the alarm it caused with some people in my family. I will post more updates in the future.'

Rodger's Twitter account has only two tweets, posted on April 19 and 20.

'Why are girls sexually attracted to obnoxious, brutish men instead of sophisticated gentlemen such as myself? #girls #perverted #sex #unfair,' reads the first.

'Why do girls hate me so much?' he posted on April 20, along with a now-deleted YouTube video.

Rodger was on a website forum called PUAHate.com, which describes itself as the 'Anti-Pickup-Artist Movement' and aims to reveal 'the scams, deception, and misleading marketing techniques used by dating gurus and the seduction community to deceive men and profit from them.'

Its members are all men who have spent a lot of time and money on books and seminars and other materials that claim to help men 'pick-up' women - but failed.

The bitter, often misogynistic threads are full of tales of woe from men who don't know how to get women to date them and blame the women themselves for the problem.

He posted in 2013, 'If you could release a virus that would kill every single man on Earth, except for yourself because you would have the antidote, would you do it? You will be the only man left, with all the females. You would be able to have your pick of any beautiful woman you want, as well as having dealt vengeance on the men who took them from you. Imagine how satisfying that would be.'

Rodger's actions have been lauded on the site by other members who have called him a 'hero.'

Brown said the shootings occurred at several sites in the town, resulting in ten crime scenes.

Santa Barbara County sheriff's spokeswoman Kelly Hoover told KEYT-TV the gunfire broke out around 9:30 p.m. Friday in the Isla Vista neighborhood.

A student told the station he saw shots fired from a BMW, fatally striking one woman and critically injuring another woman.

'I heard shots, scream, pain,' Michael Vitak said. 'All emotions. I hope she is going to be fine.'

The station said a black BMW slammed into as many as two cars.

The shooting prompted officials to issue alerts urging people to stay indoors.

Isla Vista is known for parties, including an annual spring bash that turned into a violent blowout last month as young people clashed with police and tossed rocks and bottles. A university police officer and four deputies were injured and 130 people were arrested.


 

Revealed: How son of Hunger Games assistant director stabbed three roommates to death before shooting dead three more students at random after posting chilling murder manifesto online

• Elliot Rodger, 22, stabbed to death three men inside his home in California

• Gunman wrote 140-page manifesto outlining how he wanted to kill people

• Rodger had Asperger's syndrome and was in the care of several therapists

• He had three semi-automatic handguns and 400 rounds of ammunition

• Posted video in which he claimed women have rejected his advances

• Lamenting that he was a 22-year-old virgin, Rodger promised 'retribution'

• Planned to enter 'hottest sorority on UCSB' and 'slaughter' the girls inside

By Snejana Farberovand Will Payne In Isla Vista, California and Martin Dryanand Neil Blincow

24 May 2014

The deadly crime spree in California began with three stabbing deaths inside the killer's apartment and concluded with the son of a Hollywood bigwig shooting himself in the head, it was revealed today.

Elliot Rodger, 22, started out by stabbing to death three men around 9.30pm on Friday night. The rampage covered a wide area in the vicinity of the UCSB campus with 10 separate crime scenes.

Rodger, who was driving a black BMW, acted alone when six people were killed and 13 were hurt.

Dr Stephen Kaminski, trauma services director for Santa Barbara Cottage Hospital, said of 11 of the wounded that four had been treated and released, and seven transferred to Cottage Hospital.

Of those seven, two were in good condition, three fair and two serious, he told reporters.

Santa Barbara County Sheriff Bill Brown said that after the stabbings, the Santa Barbara City College student armed himself with three semi-automatic handguns and drove to nearby Alpha Phi sorority.

Rodger, the son of The Hunger Games assistant director Peter Rodger, repeatedly knocked on the door, but no one would let him in.

The armed gunman then fired shots at three women standing outside, killing two of them, Katie Cooper, 22, and Veronika Weiss, 19.

Kyle Sullivan, 19, a student at Santa Barbara City College, was there when Rodger opened fire on Cooper, Weiss and a third victim outside the sorority house.

One of the women appeared dead, Mr Sullivan recalled to CNN, another was 'just barely able to move her eyes,' while a third was on the phone with her mother.

The wounded woman, who was shot in the kidney, was saying into the phone how she was probably not going to make it, and how much she loved her mother, the eyewitness said.

According to the sheriff, Rodger then returned to his black BMW and drove to IV Deli Mart in Golita. He entered the store and shot dead 20-year-old Christopher Martinez, an unsuspecting bystander.

Surveillance footage from the store shows how innocent shoppers ducked for cover as the gunman opened fire.

Rodger continued his crime spree, firing at two people on the sidewalk from his car, brandishing a handgun at a woman and shooting at a lone sheriff’s deputy on foot.

The killer then struck a cyclist with his car before opening fire at passersby, three of whom were wounded.

The bloody saga came to a conclusion when Rodger was confronted by four deputies and shot at them. The law enforcement agents returned fire, striking the driver in the left hip.

The injured Rodger tried to get away and slammed into another biker, who was thrown in the air and landed on the hood of the BMW, shattering the windshield in the process.

Officials believe that is when Rodger turned the gun on himself, firing a single shot at his head, which caused him to lose control of his car.

When deputies removed Rodger's lifeless body from the crashed vehicle and searched the interior, they discovered three 9mm semi-automatic handguns - a pair of Sig Sauers and a Glock - along with nearly 400 rounds of ammunition.

Sheriff Brown said all three weapons were legally purchased from licensed arms dealers and were registered to Rodger.

According to the sheriff's office, the agency had contacted Rodger on three separate occasions between July 2013 and April 2014.

On July 21, 2013, deputies reached out to the college student while he was being treated in a hospital for injuries he had allegedly sustained in an assault.

On January 15, 2014, Rodger called police accusing one of his roommates of stealing $22 (£13) worth of candles from him.

The disturbed young man made a citizen's arrest, which resulted in his roommate being jailed and cited for petty theft.

Then on April 30, deputies came to Rodger's apartment in response to a welfare check request made by a relative, presumed to be his mother.

Rodger downplayed his parent's concerns for his mental state, saying he was having difficulties with his social life and was planning to drop out of college.

The responding deputies gave him some advice and information on where to seek help, and then left.

In his 140-page manifesto 'My Twisted World' outlining his homicidal plans, Rodger described in detail the day police knocked on his door. He published the unsettling document before beginning his bloody rampage.

'I had the striking and devastating fear that someone had somehow discovered what I was planning to do, and reported me for it,' he wrote.

Rodger expressed concern that officers would search his home and find his multiple firearms and writings laying out his murderous plans, and stop him from exacting revenge on his 'enemies' by locking him up.

The officers, however, did not arrest him after finding the suspect to be ‘courteous and shy.’

Santa Barbara police spokesman Kelly Hoover revealed last night that the department's contact with Rodgers in April is now being reviewed as part of the investigation.

While in his writings and videos Rodger appeared to be a mentally unhinged and lonely young man angry at the world because he could not get a girlfriend, his Facebook account paints an entirely different picture of him.

Rodger filled his photo albums with images of his high-end cars, expensive meals and other trappings of luxury.

The son of a wealthy Hollywood director travelled the world in business class, attended a private Katy Perry concert and took in the sights on a recent trip to London.

His chilling manifesto, however, uncovers the depth of his anguish and rage, especially at women, and his desire to kill people.

‘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,’ Rodger wrote.

Authorities are also examining a video posted on social media by the shooter in which he rants about women who supposedly rejected his advances. The video is called Elliot Rodger's Retribution.

Rodger, a Santa Barbara City College Student and Isla Vista resident, according to his social media accounts, unleashed a tirade about his 'loneliness, rejection, and unfulfilled desires,' and blames women for preferring 'obnoxious brutes' to him, 'the supreme gentlemen.'

'I'm 22 years old and I'm still a virgin. I've never even kissed a girl,' he says in the video.

'College is the time when everyone experiences those things such as sex and fun and pleasure. But in 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,' he says in the video, which runs to almost seven minutes.

He repeatedly promises to 'punish' women and lays out his plan for 'retribution.'

'I'm going to enter the hottest sorority house of UCSB and I will slaughter every single spoilt, stuck-up, blonde s*** that I see inside there.

'All those girls that I've desired so much, they would've all rejected me and looked down on me as an inferior man if I ever made a sexual advance towards them,' he says.

'I'll take great pleasure in slaughtering all of you. You will finally see that I am, in truth, the superior one. The true alpha male,' he laughs like a maniacal movie villain.

'Yes... After I have annihilated every single girl in the sorority house I will take to the streets of Isla Vista and slay every single person I see there. All those popular kids who live such lives of hedonistic pleasure...'

His YouTube account contains numerous other videos in which Rodger talks of his loneliness and anger at the women he says snub him.

A three-week old video called 'Another sunny day in Santa Barbara' include the description 'I temporarily took all of my Vlog's down due to the alarm it caused with some people in my family. I will post more updates in the future.'

Rodger's Twitter account has only two tweets, posted on April 19 and 20.

'Why are girls sexually attracted to obnoxious, brutish men instead of sophisticated gentlemen such as myself? #girls #perverted #sex #unfair,' reads the first.

'Why do girls hate me so much?' he posted on April 20, along with a now-deleted YouTube video.

Rodger was on a website forum called PUAHate.com, which describes itself as the 'Anti-Pickup-Artist Movement' and aims to reveal 'the scams, deception, and misleading marketing techniques used by dating gurus and the seduction community to deceive men and profit from them.'

Its members are all men who have spent a lot of time and money on books and seminars and other materials that claim to help men 'pick-up' women - but failed.

The bitter, often misogynistic threads are full of tales of woe from men who don't know how to get women to date them and blame the women themselves for the problem.

He posted in 2013, 'If you could release a virus that would kill every single man on Earth, except for yourself because you would have the antidote, would you do it?

'You will be the only man left, with all the females. You would be able to have your pick of any beautiful woman you want, as well as having dealt vengeance on the men who took them from you. Imagine how satisfying that would be.'

Rodger's actions have been lauded on the site by other members who have called him a 'hero'.

His two sole female victims Weiss, 19, and Cooper, were both sisters at the Delta Delta Delta Greek organisation.

Katie's aunt Stacy Simmer said: 'Katie was the apple of all of our eyes, a shining star- she has so many friends.

'She had a 4.8 GPA and did a lot of charity fundraising for St Jude's Children's hospital. She was studying archeology and she was in in a wonderful sorority.

Her parents Katie and Dan left San Bernardino for Santa Barbara as soon as they heard. Her two brothers, Nick, 26, a chemist in Colorado and Jon, still in college, will join them.

The father of UCSB English major Mr Martinez also confirmed his son was killed in the massacre.

During an emotional press conference yesterday, Richard Martinez said his family was 'lost and broken.'

The grief-stricken parent railed against the National Rifle Association and called on politicians to pass more robust gun control laws.

'They talk about gun rights. What about Chris' right to live?' Mr Martinez Snr said. 'When will enough people say: 'Stop this madness! We don't have to live like this! Too many people have died!'

Alan Schifman, a lawyer for Peter Rodger, confirmed that Elliot Rodger was the gunman.

Mr Schifman told ABC News that Elliot was diagnosed with Asperger's syndrome as a child and had been subjected to bullying from his classmates for most of his life because he was a loner. The lawyer also said the gunman was being treated by several therapists.

In a statement, his father described the family's 'inconceivable pain' and said his heart 'goes out to everybody involved'.

Friends of the family were aghast at the news.

‘Oh my God, my God. This is terrible,’ said Christian Rivas, a close friend and neighbour of Rodger’s 18 year-old sister, Georgia, when asked about Friday’s tragedy.

‘I was hanging out with Georgia till two o’clock this morning at the local park and she was happy and laughing - she had no idea what was going on with her brother. She must be devastated - I feel so bad for her…and the victims.

‘She was always worried about Elliot. She would say that she didn’t understand him because he was always such a loner - he didn’t want to have anything to do with anyone else and he had no friends.

‘Georgia said that when they did talk, they would often fight because he didn’t seem to be interested in anything or anyone. She couldn’t relate late to him and he was so anti-social.'

Mr Rivas, 19, lives around the corner from the neat, three-bedroom home on quiet Windom Steet in West Hills - about 25 miles north west of Los Angeles - where Elliot’s mother, ‘Chin’ Rodger, 53 lives with Georgia.

‘Elliot wasn’t really living here all the time any ore but he stayed here a lot,’ added Mr Rivas, who attended nearby El Camino High School, the same school both Elliot and Georgia went to.

‘When I would go to their house to see Georgia, if Elliot was in he would never come out into the living room and talk. He always stayed locked in his bedroom by himself.

‘He always kept very much to himself. When he did go out he would sometimes just drive round the neighborhood aimlessly in his car - I think it was a black BMW.

‘Georgia had a boyfriend once who just couldn’t figure Elliot out and called him a “real weirdo.” The boyfriend would say “hi” to him but Elliot wouldn’t say a word. He’d just go to his bedroom and slam the door.

‘The only person he spent time with was his mother. I think he was quite close to her. His mom is very sweet and nice and I think she gets on well with Elliot and Georgia’s dad, even though they’re divorced.

‘I feel so sorry for Georgia and her mom and dad. They’re a really nice family and this is going to devastate them. Elliot was a strange guy and Georgia did worry about him a lot. But something as horrific and violent as this - she could never have imagined anything so awful happening.'

As the shooting unfolded, residents took to social media to share the news and warn others.

'I could have easily been dead right now. RIP to the girls who got shot and killed and other people who got run over by this idiot,' tweeted one.

Sienna Schwartz said the shooter approached her and said, 'Hey what up?' and then began shooting at her as she walked away.

The distressed girl said she initially thought the gun the shooter flashed at her was an airsoft gun but realized it was real when three or four bullets buzzed past her ears.

A student told the station he saw shots fired from a BMW, fatally striking one woman and critically injuring another woman.

'I heard shots, scream, pain,' Michael Vitak said. 'All emotions. I hope she is going to be fine.'

Around 3,000 students turned out for an emotional candlelit vigil tonight to honor the six dead students on Saturday night.

After silently assembling in a plaza on campus, they marched solemnly back towards the scene of the massacre in downtown Isla Vista.

At the end of the march, there was a student-led vigil and several moments of silence for people to reflect on the tragic events of the day.

Isla Vista is known for parties, including an annual spring bash that turned into a violent blowout last month as young people clashed with police and tossed rocks and bottles.

A university police officer and four deputies were injured and 130 people were arrested.

FULL TRANSCRIPT OF 'ELLIOT RODGER'S RETRIBUTION' YOUTUBE VIDEO

Hi, Elliot Rodger here. Well, this is my last video. It all has to come to this. Tomorrow is the day of retribution, the day I will have my revenge against humanity, against all of you.

For the last eight years of my life, 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, never to me.

I'm 22 years old and still a virgin, never even kissed a girl. And through college, 2 1/2 years, more than that actually, 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. In those years I've had to rot in loneliness, it's not fair.

You forced me to suffer all my life, now I will make you all suffer. I waited a long time for this. - Elliot Rodger.

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 all these obnoxious men instead of me, the supreme gentleman. I will punish all of you for it.

On the day of retribution, I am going to enter the hottest sorority house at UCSB and I will slaughter every single spoiled, stuck-up, blond slut I see inside there. All those girls I've desired so much. They have all rejected me and looked down on me as an inferior man if I ever made a sexual advance toward them, while they throw themselves at these obnoxious brutes.

I take great pleasure in slaughtering all of you., You will finally see that I am, in truth, the superior one, the true alpha male. [laughs] Yes, after I have annihilated every single girl in the sorority house, I'll take to the streets of Isla Vista and slay every single person I see there. All those popular kids who live such lives of hedonistic pleasure while I've had to rot in loneliness all these years. They all look down upon me every time I tried to join them, they've all treated me like a mouse.

Well, now I will be a god compared to you, you will all be animals, you are animals and I will slaughter you like animals. I'll be a god exacting my retribution on all those who deserve it and you do deserve it just for the crime of living a better life than me.

The popular kids, you never accepted me and now you will all pay for it. Girls, all I ever wanted was to love you, be loved by you. I wanted a girlfriend. I wanted sex, love, affection, adoration.

You think I'm unworthy of you. That's I crime I can never get over. If I can't have you girls, I will destroy you. [laughs] You denied me a happy life and in turn I will deny all of you life, it's only fair. I hate all of you.

Humanity is a disgusting, wretched, depraved species. If I had it in my power I would stop at nothing to reduce every single one of you to mountains of skulls and rivers of blood and rightfully so. You deserve to be annihilated and I will give that to you. You never showed me any mercy so I will show you none.

You forced me to suffer all my life, now I will make you all suffer. I waited a long time for this. I'll give you exactly what you deserve, all of you. All you girls who rejected me, looked down upon me, you know, treated me like scum while you gave yourselves to other men. And all of you men for living a better life than me, all of you sexually active men. I hate you. I hate all of you. I can't wait to give you exactly what you deserve, annihilation.