More info is flowing about Elliot Rodger and his killing spree apparently motivated by feeling he was rejected by women that ended in seven deaths, including his own. The latest tidbit: he stabbed three roommates to death in his apartment before he went on his shooting spree:
Santa Barbara County Sheriff Bob Brown confirmed the suspect was Rodger, a Santa Barbara City College student and son of a film director.He accused Rodger, 22, of killed six people before taking his own life.
The narrative of the violence described by authorities share striking similarities to a 140-page statement Rodger wrote in which he described plans to kill people.
Brown said deputies had three earlier dealings with Rodger, including a welfare check last month after family members called expressing concern about his health. The deputies said Rodger seemed to be fine and did not take any action against him.
Authorities said Rodger allegedly began his crime spree by fatally stabbing three roomates at his apartment complex.
That was just the beginning:
Officials said Elliot Rodger then went to a sorority a few blocks away and opened fire on three women nearby, fatally wounding two of them.
Rodger’s next stop, said Brown, was a local deli, where he fatally shot a UC Santa Barbara student inside.
The suspect them drove his BMW, opening fire on pedestrians and others on the street, Brown said. He then got into a gun battle with deputies. Apparently wounded, he continued to drive. He was eventually captured by police, who found him dead of a gunshot wound to the head that appeared self-inflicted.
They found three guns, and all were legally purchased and registered to him.
He has also left behind nearly a dozen videos — and a printed manifesto:
In the printed document, Rodger described his anger and alienation.
“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,” he wrote.
“All of my suffering on this world has been at the hands of humanity, particularly women, it has made me realize just how brutal and twisted humanity is as a species,” he wrote. His life “is a dark story of sadness, anger and hatred. It is a story of war against cruel injustice.”
Alan Shifman, attorney for Peter Rodger, assistant director of The Hunger Gamesseries, said the family had not yet seen the young man’s body.
Shifman said family members called authorities several weeks ago after being alarmed by YouTube videos “regarding suicide and the killing of people.”
Police interviewed Elliot Rodger and found him to be a “perfectly polite, kind and wonderful human,” Shifman said.
Or so they thought.
Authorities did not find a history of guns, but did say the 22-year-old had trouble making friends, he added.
And, indeed: his Facebook page is notable for something unusual: it’s almost all selfies — and not one friend.
SEE EARLIER POST HERE WITH HIS RETRIBUTION VIDEO
Joe Gandelman is a former fulltime journalist who freelanced in India, Spain, Bangladesh and Cypress writing for publications such as the Christian Science Monitor and Newsweek. He also did radio reports from Madrid for NPR’s All Things Considered. He has worked on two U.S. newspapers and quit the news biz in 1990 to go into entertainment. He also has written for The Week and several online publications, did a column for Cagle Cartoons Syndicate and has appeared on CNN.