A 22-year-old Santa Barbara City College student from Woodland Hills had a checkered past leading up to the May 23 shooting at UCSB that claimed six people and injured more than a dozen others.
Elliot Rodger, who was also killed in addition to the six lives claimed on Friday evening near the UCSB campus in Isla Vista, had posted a video on the Internet describing his plot to kill female students.
The motive for his plan, according to his video message, was he felt lonely and snubbed. He posted the video, titled “Elliot Rodger’s Retribution,” just hours before the shooting rampage occurred near UCSB.
“On the day of retribution, I am going to enter the hottest sorority house at UCSB and slaughter every single spoiled, stuck-up, blonde (student) I see in there,” suspected killer Rodger reportedly said in the video. “After I have annihilated every single girl in the sorority house, I’ll take to the streets of Isla Vista and slay ever single person I see there.”
According to news reports, some victims were either killed or injured by gunfire. Still others were injured when Rodger’s BMW reportedly struck a group of people on an Isla Vista street.
In addition to the gunfire and vehicle collision, Santa Barbara County Sheriff Bill Brown stated at a May 24 press conference that Rodger was also identified as killing three male roommates by knife in an Isla Vista apartment on Friday night.
The stabbings reportedly occurred before Rodger was suspected to embark on a six-minute shooting spree, where he reportedly killed three others.
Brown confirmed at the press conference Rodger was later found dead inside his vehicle on an Isla Vista street, news reports confirmed.
The names of at least three victims were released on May 24, including Veronika Weiss, 19, of Westlake Village, and Katie Cooper. According to Brown, both were reportedly shot dead in front a sorority house.
Law enforcement officials also identified Christopher Martinez, 20, of San Luis Obispo as the third victim. He was reportedly killed at a liquor store.
Accordingly, Rodger, who was reportedly armed with three 9-millimeter handguns, is suspected to have killed four men and two women. One of the handguns was reportedly purchased from Burbank, Calif.
Of the 13 people reported injured, officials reportedly confirmed four of them were struck by Rodger’s vehicle and another eight were hit by gunfire.
On a blog, Rodger, who is the son of an assistant director on the Hunger Games, wrote about his loneliness in Santa Barbara.
“Being lonely in a beautiful place like Santa Barbara is truly a horrible experience. As I’ve said many times, a beautiful environment can be the darkest hell if you have to experience it all alone, especially while having to watch other men walking around with their girlfriends,” he wrote. “I wish girls were attracted to me, I don’t know why they aren’t.”
More details were revealed in a 100,000-word “manifesto” reportedly found by law enforcement officials.
Reportedly entitled “My Twisted World,” Rodger revealed in the treatise though he had roots in Great Britain he grew up in western Los Angeles County, specifically the affluent areas of Calabasas and Woodland Hills.
The treatise also reportedly revealed Rodger attended several schools in the San Fernando Valley area, such as Topanga Elementary, Pinecrest Schools, Crespi Carmelite High, Taft High, and Independence Continuation High.
While attending Crespi in Encino, the 100,000-word manifesto reportedly included Rodger’s commentary of being bullied at the school.
“On my very first week (at Crespi), I had my first experience of true bullying,” Rodger reportedly wrote in his treatise. “Some horrible Twelfth Graders saw me as a target because I looked like a ten year old and I was physically weak. They threw food at me during lunchtime and after school. It enraged me, but I was too scared to do anything about it.”
Transferring from Crespi to nearby Taft in Woodland Hills, Rodger reportedly wrote he was subject to bullying there, as well.
“The first week [at Taft] … was living hell,” Rodger reportedly wrote in his manifesto. “This was what truly opened my eyes to how brutal the world is. “The most meanest and depraved of men come out on top, and women flock to these men.”
After completing his high school studies, Rodger reportedly stated the film Alpha Dog inspired him to attend Santa Barbara City College. The film was about West Hills resident Nicholas Markowitz, who was abducted and killed at the age of 15. Coincidentally, West Hills is in between Calabasas and Woodland Hills.
In the film, after Markowitz was abducted his captors held him hostage at a Santa Barbara motel before later being killed in a remote area.
“The movie had a profound effect on me, because it depicted lots of good looking young people enjoying pleasurable sex lives,” Rodger reportedly wrote in the manifesto about Alpha Dog. “That was the life I wanted. A life of pleasure and sex.”
