SANTA BARBARA, MAY 25 -
A 22-year-old gunman killed six people before taking his own life in a
rampage across a California college town, shortly after he posted a
threatening video railing against women, police said on Saturday.
Elliot Rodger, the son of a Hollywood director, stabbed three people to
death in his apartment before gunning down three more victims on Friday
night in the town of Isla Vista near the campus of the University of
California at Santa Barbara.
Rodger opened fire on bystanders from his car and on foot in a killing
spree that ended when he took his life after a shootout with sheriff's
deputies, police said. Authorities found three legally purchased
semiautomatic guns, two Sig Sauers and a Glock, and more than 400 rounds
of ammunition in his car.
At least 13 people were wounded, including eight who were shot.
In a YouTube video, a young man presumed by police to be Rodger
bitterly complains of loneliness and rejection by women and lays out
plans to kill those he believes spurned him.
"It's obviously the work of a madman," Sheriff Bill Brown told a news
conference, adding the community college student had been seen by a
variety of health care professionals and that it was "very, very
apparent he was severely mentally disturbed."
Witnesses reported seeing someone driving a black BMW through the
streets and shooting at people in the beachside community where many
college students live.
Brown said his department had three times been in contact with Rodger
prior to the killings, including once after a family member asked them
to check on his welfare last month. Deputies interviewed Rodger but
found him to be polite and courteous and took no further action, Brown
said.
"He expressed to deputies he was having difficulties with his social
life and would probably not be returning to school within the next
year," Brown said, adding that deputies determined he did not meet the
criteria to be held involuntarily on mental health grounds.
The son of assistant director Peter Rodger on the 2012 film "The Hunger
Games," Elliot Rodger had previously gone to authorities to report a
roommate had stolen some candles. Another time, he reported being the
victim of an assault. Authorities said they later suspected he may have
been the aggressor.
"We offer our deepest, compassionate sympathy to the families involved
in this terrible tragedy," lawyer Alan Shifman told reporters outside
the family home in the Woodland Hills neighborhood of Los Angeles,
reading from a prepared statement on behalf of the family.
"We are experiencing the most inconceivable pain and our hearts go out to everyone involved," he added.
WROTE MANIFESTO
A YouTube video police were studying shows a young man who identified
himself as Elliot Rodger pouring out his hatred of women who have
rejected him and "popular kids," and threatening to kill people out of
loneliness and sexual frustration.
"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," he said in the video, his speech punctuated by
bursts of laughter.
The clip, since removed from YouTube as a violation of its policies,
appeared to have been uploaded to YouTube on Friday night, shortly
before the shooting. Brown said Rodger had also penned a 141-page
manifesto, in addition to posting several disturbing videos.
Rodger's killing spree appeared to begin in his apartment, where he
repeatedly stabbed three men, killing them and leaving behind what Brown
described as a horrifying crime scene.
He then made his way to a nearby sorority house, whose members heard
aggressive knocking on the door for at least a minute. But no one from
the collegiate women's organization answered, Brown said.
He said that shortly afterward, witnesses reported seeing Rodger shoot
three young women outside the sorority house. Katherine Cooper, 22, and
Veronica Weiss, 19, died.
Driving off to a nearby delicatessen, Rodger shot dead 20-year-old UCSB
student Christopher Michael-Martinez, Brown said. Police responded and
Rodger fled in his car.
He shot at pedestrians as he drove, traded fire with police and struck
two bicyclists before he crashed his car and officers found him with an
apparently self-inflicted gunshot wound to the head, Brown said.
Richard Martinez told reporters that his son Christopher was an English major who wanted to go to law school.
"Why did Chris die? Chris died because of craven, irresponsible
politicians and the NRA," Martinez told reporters outside the Santa
Barbara County Sheriff's Office, close to collapsing from emotion. "They
talk about gun rights, what about Chris' right to live? When will this
insanity stop?"
The National Rifle Association, or NRA, supports the right to own and
carry firearms, saying responsible gun owners should not be punished for
mass shootings.
'TRIGGER HAPPY'
Trent Anderson, 21, a student at Santa Barbara City College, said in a
phone interview that he and a friend went to the deli to get food and
then walked away a short distance when they heard shots fired.
"It sounded like six to eight shots," Anderson said. "He just blasted
it up. He unloaded the clips so fast it sounded like fireworks, he was
trigger-happy."
The incident was the latest mass shooting in the United States, where
schools, shopping malls and military bases have been scenes of such
crimes.
In December 2012, 20 children and six adults were killed at an
elementary school in Connecticut, six months after a gunman killed 14
people in a Colorado movie theater.
The deadliest U.S. mass shooting in modern times was in 2007, when a student at Virginia Tech killed 32 people.
Following the latest attack, a crowd of about 5,000 people, most of
them holding candles, met at UCSB for a vigil and then filled the narrow
streets of Isla Vista as they converged on a park. The largely
college-age crowd walked in a silence broken only by their footsteps on
the pavement.
No comments:
Post a Comment