by BRIANNA SICILIANO Photo/Video Editor
A California gunman went on a rampage near Santa Barbara University and stabbed three people to death at his apartment before shooting and killing three more in a terrorizing crime spree on Friday, May 23.
Authorities have identified the killer as Elliot Rodger, who posted various videos on the web and wrote statements saying that he was seeking to kill sorority women and others at the university as revenge for the way women had rejected him throughout his life.
In the past, Rodger has posted videos on his Youtube channel about his struggle with relationships.
He has posted 21 videos onto the site, including videos entitled “Being lonely on Spring Break sucks,” “Why do girls hate me so much,” “Life is so unfair because girls [do not] want me,” and “Elliot Rodger, Lonely Vlog, Life is unfair.”
In his six minute video “Life is so unfair because girls [do not] want me,” which was uploaded the day of his killing spree, Rodger rants about how “sad and unfair [his life] has been all because girls have not been attracted to [him]….[He’s] been going college for two and a half years now, and in those two and a half years, [he has] had to rot in bleak and sad loneliness while other guys got to enjoy all the pleasures of, you know, sex, socializing, and partying. [He has] never had the taste of that because no girls give [him] a chance.”
In the video, Rodger continues to go on about how unfair his life is, and gives multiple reasons why girls should have given him a chance. You would think that authorities would have caught Rodger earlier than this incident and prevented the death of six innocent people, considering that this is not the first video that Rodgers has uploaded about how ‘girls do not like him,’ but apparently no one who viewed his videos previously thought that they were suspicious or that he could commit such a heinous crime.
“Honestly, it is just disgusting to watch Elliot Rodger’s videos. He acts like women are objects, basically saying that he wants one for himself. There was obviously something wrong with this disgusting man’s life,” said junior Kate Broskie.
Later that day, out of anger and frustration, Rodger fired his semi-automatic handgun for 10 minutes as he made his way through the beach community of Isla Vista where students were walking, riding bikes, and skateboarding. The shootings started around 9:30 p.m. in Isla Vista, which is a community about half a mile next to University of California’s Santa Barbara campus.
In the end, seven people were left dead: two women who were shot and killed on the lawn of Alpha Phi sorority, a male who was shot in a convenience store, three other males who were found stabbed to death in the killer’s apartment, and himself.
“Elliot Rodger claimed that his life was unfair because he was a virgin at 22, right? Well, look at the innocent people that he murdered because of his disgusting mental issues. How do you think their families feel? The victims of his crime, and their families, are the ones who are living an unfair life,” said junior Giulietta Flaherty.
What do you think about this gruesome tragedy? Do you think that this crime could have been prevented in some way?
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