Isla Vista shooting suspect vowed ‘war on women,’ sorority

Santa Barbara County sheriff’s officials offered the most detailed description yet of the violent rampage in Isla Vista on Friday night, saying the suspect methodically killed at three separate locations near UC Santa Barbara.

Officials said he targeted his apartment complex, then a UC Santa Barbara sorority and then a deli.

The narrative of the violence described by authorities shares striking similarities to a 137-page statement the suspect, Elliot Rodger, wrote in which he described plans to kill people.

In that document, he outlines detailed plans for killing his roommates then attacking a sorority in what he described as his “war on women.”

“I will attack the very girls who represent everything I hate in the female gender: The hottest sorority of UCSB,” he wrote.

Santa Barbara County Sheriff Bob Brown confirmed the suspect was Elliot Rodger, a Santa Barbara City College student and son of a film director. He accused Rodger, 22, of killing six people before taking his own life.

Brown said deputies had three earlier dealings with Rodger, including a welfare check last month after family members called expressing concern about his health. The deputies said Rodger seemed to be fine and did not take any action against him.

Authorities said Rodger allegedly began his crime rampage by fatally stabbing three roommates at his apartment complex.

Officials say he then went to a sorority a few blocks away and opened fire on three women nearby, fatally wounding two of them.

Rodger’s next stop, said Brown, was a local deli, where he fatally shot a UC Santa Barbara student inside.

The suspect then drove his BMW, opening fire on pedestrians and others on the street, Brown said. He then got into a gun battle with deputies. Apparently wounded, he continued to drive. He was eventually found dead of a gunshot wound to the head that appeared self-inflicted.

They found three guns that were all were legally purchased and registered to him.

In the printed document, Rodger described his anger and alienation.

“On the day before the Day of Retribution, I will start the First Phase of my vengeance: Silently killing as many people as I can around Isla Vista by luring them into my apartment through some form of trickery,” he wrote.

The manifesto appears to be similar to YouTube videos Rodger made.

One of Rodger’s parents called a law enforcement agency last month, warning about disturbing videos he was posting online, according to a source close to the family. It was unclear which videos they saw.

In the last video, posted Friday night and titled “Elliot Rodger’s retribution,” Rodger described his anger toward women and men.

“I’m 22 years old and still a virgin, never even kissed a girl. And through college, 2 1/2 years, more than that actually, I’m still a virgin. It has been very torturous,” he said. “The popular kids, you never accepted me and now you will all pay for it. Girls, all I ever wanted was to love you, be loved by you. I wanted a girlfriend. I wanted sex, love, affection, adoration.”

“”You forced me to suffer all my life, now I will make you all suffer,” he said. “All you girls who rejected me, looked down upon me, you know, treated me like scum while you gave yourselves to other men. And all of you men for living a better life than me, all of you sexually active men. I hate you. I hate all of you. I can’t wait to give you exactly what you deserve, annihilation.”

Brown described the drive-by slayings as “the work of a mad man.”

Times staff writers Stephen Ceasar, Matt Stevens and Rong-Gong Lin II contributed to this report.