By Mary Whitfill, editor-in-chief
Seven, including the shooter, were killed on the University of California Santa Barbara campus on Friday night after Elliot Rodger, 22, allegedly went on a shooting rampage. Rodger, a student at UC Santa Barbara, has been confirmed dead but police have not yet said if the wounds were self-inflicted.
Posting a video on social media claiming to be a 22-year-old virgin, Rodger threatened retribution and punishment against all of the girls who rejected him over the years. In the video he said he plans to enter the “hottest sorority on UCSB” and murder the girls inside.
It has not yet been confirmed that Rodger is the shooter. Police say they are investigating if this video, shot inside a vehicle, is connected to the crime.
‘I’m going to enter the hottest sorority house of UCSB and I will slaughter every single spoiled, stuck-up, blonde s**t that I see inside there,” Rodger said on video. “All those girls that I’ve desired so much, they would’ve all rejected me and looked down on me as an inferior man if I ever made a sexual advance towards them … I’ll take great pleasure in slaughtering all of you.”
However, most of the shooting appeared to take place on the streets.
“We have obtained and we are currently analyzing both written and videotaped evidence that suggests that this atrocity was a premeditated mass murder,” Santa Barbara County Sheriff Bill Brown said in a press conference early Saturday morning.
Police received calls reporting gunshots around 9:30 p.m. on Friday night. After police administered first aid to several victims, they were given information regarding the shooter and the vehicle he was using, a black BMW.
Several minutes later, the shooter engaged in a shootout with police before fleeing. Brown reported that after deputies approached the vehicle, the driver was dead from an apparent gunshot wound to the head.
A photo on Facebook shows Rodger in the driver seat of a black BMW with plates matching those of the shooter, according to the Daily Mail.
Rodger is the son of Peter Rodger, assistant director for the popular Hunger Games films. Alan Shiftman, Peter’s attorney, says the family has been informed their son is dead, according to USA Today.
Photo courtesy Ryosuke Yagi, Creative Commons.
