What You Need to Know About the Santa Barbara Killings

ByCOLLEEN CURRY ABCNews logo

Tuesday, May 27, 2014

What Happened?

On Friday night around 9 p.m. PST, 22-year-old Elliot Rodger stabbed his three roommates in their shared apartment near the campus of the University of California Santa Barbara.
Rodger then drove five blocks to a sorority house to kill the women inside, but they didn't open the door. Instead, he walked around the corner and opened fire at a group of students, killing two sorority members and injuring a third.
Rodger got in his black BMW and drove away, shooting and ramming his car into students, before stopping and going into a deli where he killed a sixth person.
Rodger twice engaged in gun fights with sheriff's officers as he drove. He was shot near his left hip by cops, prompting him to accelerate and crash into a bicyclist who slammed into and smashed Rodger's windshield. With the biker still on his car, Rodger crashed into parked cars. He then shot himself in the head, police said. Thirteen were injured and six were dead in addition to Rodger.

Who Was Elliot Rodger?

Rodger, 22, was the son of photographer and Hollywood director Peter Rodger, who was the assistant director for one of the "Hunger Games" films. Rodger grew up around red carpets and Hollywood glamor, but was socially awkward and isolated, his family said. He was treated by multiple therapists and was a student at Santa Barbara City College.
Friends described Rodger as a "really lonely guy" who was depressing to be around. He complained to his friends that no girls were interested in dating him, and he complained that he was a 22-year-old virgin who had never been kissed. he complained in a blog and videos that he had never even held a girl's hand.
Police said they had previous contacts with Rodger before Friday's shooting. In January he made a citizen's arrest of his roommate for allegedly stealing three candles, and in July 2013 he claimed he had been assaulted, but police determined he may have been the aggressor.

What About All Those YouTube Videos and the Manifesto?

Rodger wrote a 137-page manifesto detailing his plans for what he called the Day of Retribution, in which he would exact revenge for what he saw as a lifetime of rejection and isolation.
"All I ever wanted was to fit in and live a happy life amongst humanity, but I was cast out and rejected, forced to endure an existence of loneliness and insignificance, all because the females of the human species were incapable of seeing the value in me," he wrote in the document, titled "My Twisted World."
Rodger also uploaded several videos to YouTube, including one called "Elliot Rodger's Retribution." He talked about hating girls who had rejected his advances and hating his younger brother for having social skills.
The videos caused his family and social workers to call police and ask that they conduct a welfare check on Rodger, which police did on April 30. They found that he did not meet the criteria for a mental health hold.

Who Were the Victims?

Where Did the Hashtag #YesAllWomen Come From?

In the days after the shooting, Twitter users began talking about the misogyny and sense of entitlement Rodger displayed in his manifesto and YouTube videos. His grudge against women sparked the hashtag "#YesAllWomen," which referred to misogyny that all women have experienced in their lives.
The campaign's point is that while not all men are guilty of crimes to women, all women are affected by misogyny. All women have feared things men do, according to the Twitter user who launched the hashtag.
"Because we're taught 'don't leave your drink alone' instead of 'don't drug someone,' read one Tweet with the tag #YesAllWomen.
"Because I shouldn't have had to send my daughters to college with pepper spray and a rape whistle. #YesAllWomem." read another.

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