Coverage of Elliot Rodger stirs debate after Isla Vista rampage

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People look through a window pocked with bullet holes at the IV Deli Mart in Isla Vista, near UC Santa Barbara. (Al Seib / Los Angeles Times)

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Seen through a bullet hole, IV Deli Mart owner Michael Hassan cleans up his store near UC Santa Barbara. A gunman fatally shot someone there. (Irfan Khan / Los Angeles Times)

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Students listen to a memorial service at UCSB for six students slain Friday in Isla Vista. (Wally Skalij / Los Angeles Times)

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Students hug during a memorial service at UCSB for six students slain Friday in Isla Vista. (Wally Skalij / Los Angeles Times)

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Students listen to a memorial service at UCSB for six students slain Friday in Isla Vista. (Wally Skalij / Los Angeles Times)

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UC Santa Barbara student Shoshana Cohen, 20, writes a chalk message in the street in front of the I.V. Deli Mart in Isla Vista, where one of last week’s rampage victims was gunned down. (Brian van der Brug / Los Angeles Times)

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A passersby is reflected in the window of the I.V. Deli Mart in Isla Vista, where one of the victims in last week’s rampage was gunned down. (Brian van der Brug / Los Angeles Times)

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UCSB student Jessica Enriquez stands quietly at a memorial for those killed by Elliot Rodger’s rampage at the Associated Students Pardall Center in Isla Vista. (Brian van der Brug / Los Angeles Times)

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UCSB student Danielle Burbank, right, pets Mason, a yellow Labrador taking part in dog therapy in Isla Vista. (Brian van der Brug / Los Angeles Times)

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UCSB student Forrest Liu, 20, writes out his thoughts at a memorial for those killed at the Associated Students Pardall Center. (Brian van der Brug / Los Angeles Times)

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Students gather near Royce Hall at UCLA to pay tribute to the Isla Vista victims during a candlelight vigil Monday. (Wally Skalij / Los Angeles Times)

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Students observe a moment of silence near Royce Hall at UCLA during a tribute to the Isla Vista victims. (Wally Skalij / Los Angeles Times)

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Pastor Michael Faccuito of Santa Barbara prays in front of the I.V. Deli Mart in Isla Vista. (Francine Orr / Los Angeles Times)

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People stand with signs reading “News Crew Go Home” in front of the I.V. Deli Mart in Isla Vista. (Francine Orr / Los Angeles Times)

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UC Santa Barbara student Ariana Richmond, 20, writes on the sidewalk in front of the apartment where Elliot Rodger lived and allegedly stabbed three victims to death in Isla Vista, Calif. (Francine Orr / Los Angeles Times)

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UCSB student Hanna Korynta, 20, in front of the apartment where Elliot Rodger lived and allegedly stabbed three men to death in Isla Vista, Calif., on Friday. She has come to bring flowers and pay her respects. Korynta and her boyfriend heard gunfire after returning from dinner the night of the stabbings and shootings but they were not injured. (Francine Orr / Los Angeles Times)

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Friends and mourners have placed flowers and notes outside the apartment where Elliot Rodger lived and allegedly stabbed three victims to death in Isla Vista, Calif. The note is presumably written for George Chen, 19, a victim of the stabbings who attended nearby UC Santa Barbara. (Francine Orr / Los Angeles Times)

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Flowers have been placed outside the apartment where Elliot Rodger lived and allegedly stabbed three victims to death in Isla Vista, Calif., near UC Santa Barbara. (Francine Orr / Los Angeles Times)

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A candlelight vigil was held on Pardall Road near the scene of one of the fatal shootings in Isla Vista on Friday night. (Lawrence K. Ho / Los Angeles Times)

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A congregant reacts during Mass at St. Mark’s University Parish in honor of the UC Santa Barbara victims. (Lawrence K. Ho / Los Angeles Times)

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Congregants embrace during Mass at St. Mark’s University Parish in Isla Vista to remember the victims of Friday night’s violent rampage that left seven dead. (Lawrence K. Ho / Los Angeles Times)

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Well-wishers arriving to pay respects at the home of UC Santa Barbara student Katherine Cooper, who was killed in the Isla Vista attack, hug outside her family’s home in Chino Hills. (Bob Chamberlin / Los Angeles Times)

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Friends hold hands to pray and remember shooting victims Veronika Weiss of Thousand Oaks and Katie Cooper of Chino Hills outside the Alpha Phi sorority house where they were gunned down Friday during a rampage in Isla Vista. (Gina Ferazzi / Los Angeles Times)

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UCSB student Natasha Monsauret brings two red roses to place at the memorial in front of the I.V. Deli Mart in Isla Vista. (Gina Ferazzi / Los Angeles Times)

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Friends hold hands to pray and remember shooting victims Veronika Weiss of Thousand Oaks and Katie Cooper of Chino Hills outside the Alpha Phi sorority house. (Gina Ferazzi / Los Angeles Times)

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A large crowd gathers to pray and remember shooting victims Veronika Weiss and Katie Cooper outside the Alpha Phi sorority house in Isla Vista. (Gina Ferazzi / Los Angeles Times)

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Jose Cardoso, 50, cries and prays next to flowers in front of the Alpha Phi sorority house, which was targeted in the rampage. He said he has a local printing shop and has done a lot of work for the fraternities and sororities. He said he thinks of the students as his own children. (Francine Orr / Los Angeles Times)

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A woman adds flowers to a memorial in front of the Alpha Phi sorority house in Isla Vista. (Francine Orr / Los Angeles Times)

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Knitted peace symbols hang from a tree across the street from of the I.V. Deli Mart in Isla Vista, a scene of part of the violent rampage Friday night. (Francine Orr / Los Angeles Times)

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A young man places flowers in front of the I.V. Deli Mart in Isla Vista. (Francine Orr / Los Angeles Times)

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Robert McHalffey, 29, reacts after placing flowers in front of the I.V. Deli Mart. (Francine Orr / Los Angeles Times)

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Flowers placed at the I.V. Deli in Isla Vista on May 25, 2014, form a part of a makeshift memorial to victims of a shooting rampage.

(Francine Orr / Los Angeles Times)

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A passerby pays his respects at a makeshift memorial in front of the IV Deli Mart. (Chris Carlson / Associated Press)

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Two men kneel at a makeshift memorial in Isla Vista. (Robyn Beck / AFP/Getty Images)

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Students gathered on the UC Santa Barbara campus to remember those killed Friday night during a rampage in Isla Vista. Hundreds turned out for the event. (Michael Robinson Chavez / Los Angeles Times)

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Hundreds turned out Saturday for a vigil at UC Santa Barbara to remember the victims killed in Friday’s rampage. (Michael Robinson Chavez / Los Angeles Times)

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Caitlyn Dixon distributes roses in Isla Vista on May 24, the day after a shooting rampage left six people and the gunman dead. (Irfan Khan / Los Angeles Times)

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Lyssa Hopper is comforted outside the I.V. Deli Mart in Isla Vista. Hopper was in the store Friday night when the shooting began. (Anne Cusack / Los Angeles Times)

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The gunman’s car is cordoned off in Isla Vista, where seven people, including the attacker, were killed. He was found slumped in the BMW, three handguns and more than 400 rounds of ammunition at his side. (Irfan Khan / Los Angeles Times)

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Alan Shifman, an attorney representing Elliot Rodger’s family, speaks to reporters outside the family’s Woodland Hills home on May 24. (Michael Robinson Chavez / Los Angeles Times)

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Hannah Maschwitz, right, gets a hug from her boyfriend, fellow UC Santa Barbara senior Tyler Mullen, as the two reunite the morning after the shootings. (Al Seib / Los Angeles Times)

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A memorial outside the IV Deli Mart in Isla Vista where one man was killed in the shooting rampage. (Anne Cusack / Los Angeles Times)

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An investigator from the California Department of Justice Crime Lab collects evidence on Sabado Tarde Road on May 24 after the shooting rampage in Isla Vista. (Al Seib / Los Angeles Times)

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A street in Isla Vista where the car driven by the gunman crashed. (Irfan Khan / Los Angeles Times)

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Santa Barbara County Sheriff investigators check the suspect’s black BMW. In Isla Vista, seven people were killed and seven people wounded in a shooting rampage Friday night in the college town near UC Santa Barbara. (Irfan Khan / Los Angeles Times)

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A black BMW with a shattered windshield is at the scene in Isla Vista. (Irfan Khan / Los Angeles Times)

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A black BMW with a shattered windshield is at the scene in Isla Vista. (Irfan Khan / Los Angeles Times)

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Trigo Road near a 7-Eleven where a person was shot Friday night in an Isla Vista, Calif. (Al Seib / Los Angeles Times)

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Officials investigate a scene near the school campus after the series of shootings. (Adolfo Flores / Los Angeles Times)

By Adolfo Flores

and Matt Stevens

May 28, 2014 10:18 AM PT

At least one of the victims’ acquaintances has expressed anger over the intense focus on rampage suspect Elliot Rodger, saying it’s distracting from remembering his six victims.

“It makes me sick seeing those videos over and over again,” said Matt Moore, who went to high school with one of the victims, Christopher Michaels-Martinez. “By continuously showing the videos and stuff, you’re putting the limelight on him and not the people he killed.... I want to remember Chris.”

Added Marek Schmidt, a UC Santa Barbara student who knew victim James Hong: “I’d prefer the focus to be on the victims, not the shooter.”

Rodger, 22, left behind videos and writings that vividly describe his life, his anger and his plan to kill people in the college town.

Rodger’s “My Twisted World” presents his misogynistic views in the context of an intensely personal autobiography. He recounts blowing out the candles and wearing a wizard hat at his Disney-themed sixth birthday. He remembers seeing a naked woman for the first time in an AOL chat room at age 11. And he describes what it felt like when he began building an arsenal at 21.

Academics who study mass murder said the more coverage his screed gets, the more likely other troubled people might see acts of violence as a way to attract similar attention.

“Knowing that people will talk about you afterward is a very important component for these mass murderers,” said Ron Avi Astor, a professor of social work and education at USC. “It’s how they’ll be remembered, and it seems to be an external way their life will have meaning.”

Crime expert James Alan Fox said mass murderers typically leave writings as a form of justification.

“It’s very important [to them] that the world doesn’t view them as some nut that killed for no reason,” said Fox, who has written several books on mass shootings. “In their minds, they are good guys.”

On Tuesday, about 20,000 people attended an afternoon memorial at Harder Stadium, where UC President Janet Napolitano spoke: “We are grieving together today as a family.”

One of the most emotional moments in the service came when Michaels-Martinez’s father demanded stronger gun-control laws.

“Not one more!” Richard Martinez boomed to the crowd. “Too many people have died, and there should be not one more. How many more people are going to have to die in this situation before the problem gets solved?

Coverage of Elliot Rodger stirs debate after Isla Vista rampage

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