On Friday night, the mother of Elliot Rodger received a phone call from her son’s therapist. The therapist said that she was emailed a manifesto from Rodger that said he was going to conduct a deadly rampage.
Rodger’s mother visited his son’s YouTube channel and found the video that shows him threatening to kill people, according to the Associated Press. She called authorities and went with her ex-husband to find their son.
When the Rodger’s parents arrived, it was too late. Rodger had killed six people and shot himself, according to police.
Family friend Simon Astaire said, “They’re in deep, deep grief. Their grief, which is nearly unbearable to be close to, is as much for the loss of their son as for the victims.”
Friday night was the second time in the last couple of months where Rodger’s mother attempted to intervene in his life. She called a counselor of her son’s in April after watching videos he posted to YouTube. A mental health service was called and so were the police.
Kelly Hoover, a spokeswoman for the Santa Barbara County Sheriff’s Department, said that deputies went to his apartment to check on his mental health. They were not aware of any videos at the time. The deputies concluded in the visit that Rodger was a well-mannered, shy man who did not pose a risk to himself or the public.
Sheriff Bill Brown continues to defend the actions of his deputies.
“Obviously, looking back on this, it’s a very tragic situation and we certainly wish that we could turn the clock back and maybe change some things,” Brown told CBS’ “Face the Nation” on Sunday.
“At the time deputies interacted with him, he was able to convince them that he was OK,” he said.
In the manifesto, Rodger wrote that the police asked him if he had suicidal thoughts. He wrote that he was able to convince the deputies that he was fine. He also wrote of his relief that the deputies did not search his apartment. This was where he stored his cache of weapons that were used in his deadly Isla Vista rampage.
Rodger wrote in his manifesto that he posted 22 videos on YouTube on the week of April 26, which is when his attack was originally scheduled. He postponed the date due to an illness.
“On the week leading up to date I set for the Day of Retribution, I uploaded several videos onto YouTube in order to express my views and feelings to the world, though I don’t plan on uploading my ultimate video until minutes before the attack, because on that video I will talk about exactly why I’m doing this,” Rodger wrote.
Rodger posted a final video on Friday that showed him sitting in a BMW while saying what appears to be scripted lines. “I’ll take great pleasure in slaughtering all of you,” Rodger said.
In the videos and his manifesto, Rodger blamed his roommates, the human race, the women who kept him a virgin and the men those chose over him.
The victims of the rampage are Cheng Yuan Hong, 20, and George Chen, 19 – both from San Jose – and Weihan Wang, 20, of Fremont. Hong and Chen were the roommates of Rodger. All three were stabbed to death prior to the shooting.
The shooting victims have been identified as Veronika Weiss, 19; Katie Cooper, 22; and Christopher Michael-Martinez, 20.
The violence began close to 9:30 p.m. local time and ended just 10 minutes later. Rodger chose his victims randomly and even used his vehicle to run down people on bicycles and skateboards. Three semi-automatic handguns and 400 unused rounds of ammunition were found in the car. All of it was purchased legally.
