Santa Barbara, Calif.—
The 22-year-old man who killed six people before taking his own life in a rampage through a California college town posted a threatening video railing against women shortly before the attack, police said on Saturday.
Elliot Rodger, the son of a Hollywood director, stabbed three people to death in his apartment before gunning down three more victims Friday night in Isla Vista near the campus of the University of California at Santa Barbara.
Rodger stalked Isla Vista in his car and on foot, firing on bystanders in a killing spree that ended when he killed himself after a shootout with sheriff's deputies, police said.
Authorities found three legally purchased semiautomatic guns, two Sig Sauers and a Glock, and more than 400 rounds of unspent ammunition in his car.
In a YouTube video, a young man believed by police to be Rodger bitterly complained of loneliness and rejection by women and outlines his plan to kill those he believed spurned him.
"It's obviously the work of a madman," Sheriff Bill Brown said at a news conference, adding that Rodger had been seen by a variety of healthcare professionals and that it was "very, very apparent he was severely mentally disturbed."
Witnesses reported seeing someone driving a black BMW through the streets and shooting at people in the beachside community which is home to many college students. At least 13 people were wounded, eight of whom were shot.
The Santa Barbara Cottage Hospital said Saturday night that six victims were still being treated in its trauma unit.
Brown said his department had been in contact with Rodger three times prior to the killings, including once after a family member asked them to check on his welfare last month. Deputies who interviewed Rodger found him to be polite and courteous and took no further action, Brown said.
"He expressed to deputies he was having difficulties with his social life and would probably not be returning to school within the next year," Brown said, adding that Rodger was not thought to have met the criteria to be held involuntarily.
A crowd of about 5,000 people met at UCSB for a vigil Saturday, filling Isla Verde's narrow streets before converging in silence on a local park.
The son Peter Rodger, an assistant director of the 2012 film "The Hunger Games," he had previously complained to authorities about a roommate having stolen some candles. On another occasion he reported having been assaulted, but authorities said they suspected he may have been the aggressor.
"We offer our deepest, compassionate sympathy to the families involved in this terrible tragedy," lawyer Alan Shifman told reporters outside the Rodger family home in the Woodland Hills neighborhood of Los Angeles, reading from a statement.
"We are experiencing the most inconceivable pain, and our hearts go out to everyone involved."
Manifesto
In the YouTube video a young man who identified himself as Elliot Rodger vents his hatred of women who had rejected him, as well as "popular kids," while threatening to kill people out of loneliness and sexual frustration.
"You girls have never been attracted to me. I don't know why you girls aren't attracted to me. But I will punish you all for it. It's an injustice, a crime," he said in the video, his speech punctuated by bursts of laughter.
The clip, later removed from YouTube as a violation of its policies, appeared to have been uploaded to the site Friday night shortly before the shooting. Brown said Rodger had also penned a 141-page manifesto and posted other disturbing videos.
Rodger wrote that he first began to plan his "Day of Retribution" in the spring of 2013, the Los Angeles Time reported. He bought his first gun at "Goleta Gun and Supply," a Glock 34 with $700 he had saved from money given to him by his parents and grandmothers, according to the Times.
"After I picked up the handgun, I brought it back to my room and felt a new sense of power," he wrote. "If only one pretty girl had shown some form of attraction to me, the Day of Retribution would never happen. I'd never even consider it."
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