Santa Barbara Rampage Killer Acted Alone, Researched Knife Attacks and Nazis

Students mourn at a public memorial service on the Day of Mourning and Reflection for the victims of a killing spree at University of California, Santa Barbara on May 27, 2014 in Isla Vista, California. Photo by David McNew/Getty Images(SANTA BARBARA, Calif.) — The Santa Barbara County Sheriff’s Office released its report on the Isla Vista shooting from May 2014 that left six students at the University of California, Santa Barbara dead.

The 64-page report concluded that the suspect, 22-year-old Elliot Rodger, acted alone in planning and acting out his “premeditated, murderous rampage.” Rodger stabbed three people to death inside his Isla Vista apartment. He then killed three more people and injured another 14 in a series of drive-by shootings and by striking individuals intentionally with his car on May 23, 2014.

The three people stabbed at the apartment were all murdered separately, the report says, as they entered the apartment at different times on the day of the killings. It was hours later that Rodger uploaded a video titled “Retribution” online and emailed an autobiographical manifesto to family members and acquaintances. Minutes later, he began his rampage.

An investigation of Rodger’s cell phone turned up 24 digital movies, including a clip of blood dripping into a bathroom sink, a clip in which Rodger appears to complain about trash left in the kitchen of his apartment and his roommate being lazyand several other videos in which he expressed disdain for other people and his own life.

Rodger had also apparently searched the Internet on the day of the killings for topics including “quick silent kill with a knife.” In the months leading up to the rampage, he had searched for information related to a pair of knife attacks in China, as well as numerous searches related to Nazi leaders, in particular Adolf Hitler.

Sheriff Bill Brown said in the report that he believes the detectives, forensic teams and coroner’s personnel “handled the aftermath of this heinous crime with great ability and compassion,” and praised the first responders “whose swift, courageous, skillful and resolute actions…prevented many more deaths.”

While Brown praised California’s strict gun control laws, he acknowledged that “more can and must be done to ensure that those who died were not lost in vain.” He specifically mentioned efforts to remove guns from “armed and prohibited” individuals and legislation passed to give law enforcement officers and families the ability to temporarily impound guns in cases where public safety is believed to be at risk.

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