Tragedy struck Santa Barbara, California yesterday, as a 22-year-old man named Elliot Rodger went on a drive-by shooting spree near the University of California, leaving seven people dead, including himself.
As speculation behind the shooting continues, evidence that paints a picture of his motivation behind committing the mass murder has surfaced, via two youtube videos that feature Rodger.
In both of the truly disturbing videos, Elliot goes on a rant about how women reject him, talking about his feelings of loneliness and depression. He goes on to say that he believes that life is “unfair.”
The titles of the videos are quite cryptic – “Why do girls hate me so much?” and “Life is so unfair because girls don’t want me.”
Elliot – a former student at Santa Barbara City College – has been confirmed as the son of Peter Rodger, who is the associate director of The Hunger Games movie franchise.
According to ABC, his family is taking the news very hard, as Peter’s attorney told the site that they were “devastated.”
The outlet reported:
“They want to send the deepest condolences to all the victims’ families involved at this time.”
According to Daily Mail, the attorney also made this statement on behalf of the Rodger family:
‘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.’ Shifman added that family called police several weeks ago after being alarmed by YouTube videos ‘regarding suicide and the killing of people’ that Elliot had been posting.
He also revealed that Rodgers had allegedly been suffering from many bullying incidents throughout his years in school, and that it could have led to his cryptic videos:
“There was an incident probably a year and a half ago where he was…he fell from a balcony at a party or was thrown off of it. I think he was probably a victim from my understanding of bullying throughout his life… I’m sure that had played a role in the terrible consequences from last night.”
Meanwhile, the police department has come forward to reveal that they had up to three contacts with Elliot Rodgers before the shooting, but they overlooked it because of how polite he was.
According to the Daily Mail, he made a citizen’s arrest when his roommate was said to have stolen three candles from him that were worth $22 back in January.
The site also reports that last year in July Elliot made a call to authorities claiming that he was a victim of assault, but police believed that he could have been the aggressor in the incident.
Despite his encounters with police, there were never any charges filed against him. NYDailyNews has also obtained footage of people scrambling inside I.V. Deli Mart when Rodger opened fire. View that here.
The victims were reportedly 20-year-old Christopher Michaels-Martinez, three sorority girls, and Rodgers’ three roommates.
We pray for the families of the victims, as well as the Rodger family during this tough time.
SOURCE: ABC, Daily Mail | PHOTO CREDIT: Youtube
