Shooting rampage that killed 7 near UCSB planned, authorities say

Reporting from Isla Vista, Calif.  —  Authorities on Saturday said they believe a shooting rampage that left seven people dead in the UC Santa Barbara campus town of Isla Vista was a premeditated attack and are looking at a video in which a young man threatens violence in the area.

The shootings Friday night left Isla Vista reeling as police tried to piece together what they described as multiple crime scenes. The gunman, who was killed, opened fire from inside a black BMW, witnesses said.

Santa Barbara County Sheriff Bill Brown said a video titled “Elliot Rodger’s retribution” “appears to be connected at this time” but would not elaborate.

Brown called the shooting “the work of a madman.”

The video appears to have been made by a young man who identified himself on his blog as a student in Santa Barbara.

“I’ll take great pleasure in slaughtering all of you. You will finally see that I am in truth the superior one, the true alpha male,” the man says on the video, sitting in a car.

On the six-minute video, he talks about feeling alienated and rejected by women.

“I will be a god compared to you. You will all be animals. You are animals, and I will slaughter you like animals. I hate all of you. Humanity is a disgusting, wretched, depraved species,” he says.

“Yes, after I have annihilated every single girl in the sorority house I’ll take to the streets of Isla Vista and slay every single person I see there.”

Authorities said they are looking at videotaped as well as written evidence related to the shooting. But the man on the tape has not been named as a suspect.

Various media outlets in Hollywood and London reported that the man in the video was the son of commercial photographer and director Peter Rodger.

Rodger shot numerous commercials and was a unit director on the “The Hunger Games,” according to his IMDB profile.

Calls to phone numbers listed for Peter Rodger were not immediately returned.

The shootings began at 9:27 p.m. in Isla Vista. As deputies were tending to the injured in the first round of shootings, reports of gunfire in several other areas of the college community were reported.

Six minutes after the first 911 call came in, an unidentified man began shooting at deputies, who returned fire. He fled and seconds later was spotted by another deputy, prompting another firefight.

He then took off down Del Playa Drive and crashed into a parked vehicle, the Sheriff’s Department said. When deputies approached the vehicle they discovered the man was dead and recovered a semiautomatic handgun.

He has been preliminarily identified, but his name hasn’t been released pending positive identification, authorities said. Investigators believe he acted alone and they’re analyzing video and written evidence that suggests the killings were premeditated.

The seven injured people are being treated for gunshot wounds or traumatic injuries; their conditions are unknown. At least one of them has undergone surgery.

Authorities are investigating nine crime scenes and are interviewing a large number of witnesses, sheriff’s officials said.

Nikolaus Becker was eating outside the Habit, 888 Embarcadero Del Norte, near the scene when the first shots were fired about 9:30 p.m. At first he thought it was firecrackers. A group of three to five police officers who were nearby started to casually walk toward the sounds, said Becker, but ran when a second round of shots broke out.

On his personal website, the man who made the videotape said he was born in England and raised in the San Fernando Valley.