Weihan Wang, left, George Chen, bottom, and Cheng Yuan, top, were stabbed to death by Elliot Rodger [ENTERPRISE]Elliot Rodger, 22, killed six people and wounded 13 others before taking his own life after releasing a number of hate-filled videos online.
His mother Chin Rodger got a call from her son's therapist shortly before the shootings on Friday about a ranting email sent by their son.
She then found his disturbing videos online.
She alerted the police before setting off with her ex-husband, assistant Hunger Games director Peter Rodger.
But as they raced along the freeway en route to their son's Santa Barbara home in California, they heard news of the massacre on the radio.
By the time they arrived, officers confirmed their son had gone on a rampage.
The news comes as the first pictures of Rodger's first three victims emerged.
Weihan Wang, 20, of Fremont, and Cheng Yuan Hong, 20, of San Jose, were both stabbed to death at the apartment they had shared with him.
The body of another UCSB student, George Chen, 19, of San Jose, was also found at the apartment.
Rodger then drove towards the Alpha Phi sorority house, where he shot dead Katherine Cooper, 22, and Veronika Weiss, 19.
Twenty-year-old Christopher Martinez was shot dead outside of a delicatessen.
Sheriff's deputies had visited Rodger last month to check on his mental health but concluded he posed no risk.
The sheriff's office said Sunday they were "not aware of any videos until after the shooting rampage occurred".
Sheriff Bill Brown defended the officers' actions.
He said: "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.
"At the time deputies interacted with him, he was able to convince them that he was OK."
It's not clear why the sheriffs did not become aware of the videos.
Rodger, writing in a manifesto, said he was relieved his apartment wasn't searched because deputies would have uncovered the cache of weapons he used in the beach town rampage.
He posted at least 22 YouTube videos.
He wrote in his manifesto that he uploaded most of his videos in the week leading up to April 26, when he originally planned to carry out his attacks.
He postponed his plan after catching a cold.
Because many of the videos were removed from YouTube then re-added in the week leading up to the killings, it's unclear which of the videos alarmed his family, or whether others were reported that were not uploaded again.
He voices his contempt for everyone from his roommates to the human race, reserving special hate for two groups: the women he says kept him a virgin for all of his 22 years and the men they chose instead.
At least two other people who saw Rodger's videos before Friday compared him to a serial killer, through a message board on a bodybuilding website and the social network Reddit.
The rampage played out largely as he sketched it in public postings, including a YouTube video where he sits in the BMW in sunset light and appears to be acting out scripted lines and planned laughs.
No comments:
Post a Comment