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Tag: isla vista
Elliot Rodger Claimed He Was Victim Of Homophobic Slur During Party

Elliot Rodger Claimed He Was Victim Of Homophobic Slur During Party

By Kate Mather and Richard Winton, Los Angeles Times

LOS ANGELES — Elliot Rodger claimed a group of men called him a homophobic slur during an altercation at an Isla Vista party nearly a year before his deadly rampage in Santa Barbara, according to newly released police records.

The Santa Barbara County Sheriff’s Department report sheds new light on the July 20, 2013, incident in Isla Vista, in which deputies investigated Rodger’s claims he was pushed off a 10-foot ledge and then attacked. The report characterized the incident as a potential hate crime because Rodger said one of the attackers called him a derogatory term for a gay person.

Authorities determined it was Rodger who was the aggressor and dropped the case, sheriff’s spokeswoman Kelly Hoover previously told the Los Angeles Times. In fact, one witness told authorities Rodger tried to push several people off the ledge for no apparent reason, according to the report.

The July altercation was the first of three interactions he had with Santa Barbara sheriff’s deputies before his rampage. The report raises new questions about why the Sheriff’s Department didn’t pursue an investigation of Rodger about the party incident.

Rodger wrote about the incident in his 137-page diatribe that surfaced after his May 23 attack, which left six University of California, Santa Barbara, students dead.

That night, Rodger told the deputies, he was at a house party on Del Playa Drive when he “got into a verbal altercation” with four men.

“During the altercation, he called one of the subjects ‘ugly’ prior to being pushed off a 10-foot-high ledge,” the report said.

Rodger said he stumbled to a nearby yard and sat down in a chair, according to the report. Several minutes later, he said, 10 men approached him, telling him to “Get the … out of here.”

“He said the subjects then grabbed him and dragged him toward the driveway kicking and punching him,” the report said. “He said he was able to punch one of the subjects before they stopped attacking him.”

Rodger suffered injuries to his forearms, elbows, knuckles and left ankle, the report said.

Rodger told the deputies he didn’t know why he had been attacked. When asked why he didn’t call police, the report said, he said he “didn’t know who to call.”

“During my contact with Rodger he appeared to be not forthcoming with me,” the deputy wrote. “He appeared timid and shy and would not go into great detail about what had occurred.”

However, a witness told deputies a man matching Rodger’s description had come to his friend’s house that night and “began to push two females” who were on top of the 10-foot ledge. The witness said he caught one of the girls before she fell; the other managed to drop to the ground before falling.

The man then pushed two more people, the witness said, before jumping off the ledge and running off.

The witness said he didn’t know what provoked the man, the report said. He said the man was alone at the party, that his “demeanor was strange and he did not appear to be socializing.”

In his own writing, Rodger admitted to trying to push the partygoers.

“I tried to push as many of them as I could from the 10-foot ledge,” he wrote. “It was one of the most foolish and rash things I ever did, and I almost risked everything in doing it, but I was so drunk with rage that I didn’t care.”

Rodger said a group of men then started to push him, causing him to fall to the street below. When he realized he was missing his Gucci sunglasses, he wrote, he tried to go back to the party but ended up in the front yard of the house next door.

There, he wrote, he encountered another group of people who “greeted me with vicious hostility,” calling him names and a homophobic slur.

“A whole group of the obnoxious brutes came up and dragged me onto their driveway, pushing and hitting me,” he wrote. “I wanted to fight and kill them all. I managed to throw one punch toward the main attacker, but that only caused them to beat me even more. I fell to the ground where they started kicking me and punching me in the face.”

“Eventually, some other people from the street broke up the fight,” he continued. “I managed to have the strength to stand up and stagger away.”

Francine Orr/Los Angeles Times/MCT

Fathers Of Isla Vista Victim, Shooter Meet In Private

Fathers Of Isla Vista Victim, Shooter Meet In Private

By Eryn Brown, Los Angeles Times

The fathers of Isla Vista rampage shooter Elliot Rodger and victim Christopher Michaels-Martinez met in private on Sunday.

According to CNN, Peter Rodger and Richard Martinez sat down without media or cameras present. Other details about their meeting, including its location, were not disclosed.

Elliot Rodger, 22, a student at Santa Barbara City College, went on a rampage in the town of Isla Vista, an area popular with students at the University of California, Santa Barbara, on May 23.

He allegedly stabbed and killed his three roommates before driving through Isla Vista on a shooting rampage killing another three people and injuring 13 before crashing his car and turning his gun on himself.

Christopher Michaels-Martinez, a 20-year-old UC Santa Barbara sophomore, was the final victim gunned down in the rampage. He was killed in the I.V. Deli Mart convenience store.

Richard Martinez told news organizations last week that he hoped to meet with Peter Rodger. In the days since his son’s shooting, Martinez has spoken out for tougher gun laws on television and at public events, including a memorial at UCSB’s Harder Stadium on Tuesday.

Elliott Rodger, who had been in therapy since he was a child, legally purchased three guns and hundreds of rounds of ammunition. Shortly before the rampage, he posted a video on YouTube in which he said that he was lonely because “girls have never been attracted to me” and vowed “retribution” and “slaughter.”

The young man’s parents said Thursday that it had been “hell on earth” knowing their son’s actions led to tragedy.

“We are crying out in pain for the victims and their families. It breaks our hearts on a level that we didn’t think was possible,” Peter and Chin Rodger said at the time, in a statement. “It is now our responsibility to do everything we can to help avoid this happening to any other family.”

Gina Ferazzi/Los Angeles Times/MCT

Deputies Who Checked On Isla Vista Attacker Didn’t Watch His Videos

Deputies Who Checked On Isla Vista Attacker Didn’t Watch His Videos

By Kate Mather, Adolfo Flores and Richard Winton, Los Angeles Times

LOS ANGELES — Sheriff’s deputies who performed a welfare check on Elliot Rodger less than a month before he killed six people in Isla Vista, Calif., did not view the “disturbing” videos the 22-year-old had posted online, which Rodger said were “merely a way of expressing himself,” officials said Thursday.

Santa Barbara sheriff’s officials released new details Thursday about the April 30 welfare check, which came nearly a month before the rampage in which six victims and Rodger died and 13 others were injured.

According to a statement from the sheriff’s office, four deputies, a University of California, Santa Barbara, police officer assigned to the Isla Vista foot patrol and a dispatcher in training went to Rodger’s apartment the night of April 30, after a person who identified himself as Rodger’s friend called a county mental-health staff member.

Based on information from that caller and Rodger’s mother, sheriff’s officials said, the mental-health staff member contacted sheriff’s deputies and requested the welfare check. Officials did not elaborate what the information entailed.

Typically, only two deputies would respond to such a call, the department said. But the group that went to Rodger’s apartment included deputies who weren’t assigned to the call but were “familiar with Rodger” from a January 2014 case in which he accused his roommate of stealing candles from him.

Details of the videos were not available. The Sheriff’s Department described them as “disturbing” but do not provide details or return calls seeking comment.

Rodger posted several videos in which he threatened violence before last week’s killings. He posted one more on Friday, 10 minutes before he began shooting, officials said, long after the welfare check.

When deputies in April arrived at Rodger’s Seville Road apartment, officials said, they spoke to the 22-year-old outside.

“Deputies found Rodger to be shy, timid and polite,” officials said. “When questioned by the deputies about reported disturbing videos he had posted online, Rodger told them he was having trouble fitting in socially in Isla Vista and the videos were merely a way of expressing himself.”

“Based upon the information available to them at the time,” the statement continued, “sheriff’s deputies concluded that Rodger was not an immediate threat to himself or others, and that they did not have cause to place him on an involuntary mental health hold, or to enter and search his residence. Therefore, they did not view the videos or conduct a weapons check on Rodger.”

One of the deputies called Rodger’s mother and, after briefing her on the interaction, passed the phone to Rodger, the department said. Rodger “told her he was fine and that he would call her later.”

Deputies also gave Rodger contact information for local services, including the Sheriff’s Department, that he could use “if he needed help,” officials said.

The interaction lasted about 10 minutes, the department said.

“Based on the information reviewed thus far, the Sheriff’s Office has determined that the deputies who responded handled the call in a professional manner consistent with state law and department policy,” the statement said.

Investigators have remained tight-lipped about the rampage, citing the “most complex investigations” in the department’s history.

Authorities allege that Rodger killed three men — identified as Cheng Yuan “James” Hong, 20, George Chen, 19, and Weihan “David” Wang, 20, all students at UC Santa Barbara — inside his apartment before driving his BMW down the streets of Isla Vista on Friday night, firing out the window and veering his car toward pedestrians. Three other UC Santa Barbara students were killed: Katherine Cooper, 22; Veronika Weiss, 19; and Christopher Michaels-Martinez, 20.

About an hour after the shooting began, officials said Thursday, they learned of a 137-page document and YouTube video in which Rodger outlined what he called his “Day of Retribution.”

Gina Ferazzi/Los Angeles Times/MCT

Parents Of Isla Vista Shooter: We Are Crying Out In Pain For Victims, Families

Parents Of Isla Vista Shooter: We Are Crying Out In Pain For Victims, Families

By Joseph Serna, Los Angeles Times

The parents of Isla Vista killer Elliott Rodger say it has been “hell on earth” knowing that their son caused the tragedy that took the lives of six University of California Santa Barbara students last week and that they remain heartbroken.

“We are crying out in pain for the victims and their families. It breaks our hearts on a level that we didn’t think was possible,” Peter and Chin Rodger said in a statement disseminated by family friend Simon Astaire. “The feeling of knowing that it was our son’s actions that caused this tragedy can only be described as hell on earth.”

The statement is the most in-depth public communication from the couple since the immediate aftermath of the rampage on Friday night, when their 22-year-old son sped through the streets of the seaside college town of Isla Vista running down bicyclists and shooting at pedestrians and convenience store customers.

The attack killed three and wounded 13 others. Police later found the bodies of Elliot Rodger’s three roommates in his apartment. They had been stabbed to death.

The six victims were: Christopher Michaels-Martinez, 20; Weihan “David” Wang, 20; Cheng Yuan “James” Hong, 20; Veronika Weiss, 19; Katie Cooper, 22; and George Chen, 19.

Rodger shot himself as police closed in after he crashed his car during the attack.

In a series of videos Rodger posted to YouTube before the massacre, the Santa Barbara City College student described himself as a virgin who had never been kissed and had no friends and blamed his isolation on society in general and women in particular.

In an interview with CNN, Astaire recalled his encounters with the young man, whom he described as “unbearably reserved, self-contained.”

“He seemed to merge into the walls,” Astaire said. “He seemed the loneliest person in the world.”

Astaire said Rodger’s parents hope to help ensure a similar attack can never happen again.

“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,” they said in the statement.

The violence has lawmakers in Sacramento revisiting the state’s gun-control laws, including provisions to screen for those with mental health issues.

Rodger had been seeing therapists since he was a child and had been prescribed psychotropic drugs. Regardless, he was able to legally purchase three handguns and hundreds of rounds of ammunition.

Sheriff’s department officials said he had more than 400 rounds in his car at the time of last weekend’s shooting.

Francine Orr/Los Angeles Times/MCT