A shooter went on a rampage Friday night near the University of California, Santa Barbara that left seven people dead, including the attacker, and seven others wounded, authorities said Saturday. Here are five things to know about the attack:
WHAT HAPPENED?
A California gunman who went on a rampage near a Santa Barbara university stabbed three people to death at his apartment before shooting to death three more in a terrorizing crime spree through a neighborhood, sheriff’s officials said. The three people in the apartment were among the six left dead Friday night during the shootings near the campus of the University of California, Santa Barbara. Elliot Rodger, 22, the suspected gunman, apparently killed himself, authorities said. Sheriff Bill Brown called it a “chaotic, rapidly unfolding convoluted incident” that involved multiple crime scenes.
WHO WAS THE SHOOTER?
Elliot Rodger is the suspect, Brown said. Rodger was a student at Santa Barbara City College and the son of Peter Rodger, an assistant director on “The Hunger Games.” Rodger’s family issued the following statement Saturday through lawyer Alan Shifman: “The Rodger family offers their deepest compassion and sympathy to the families involved in this terrible tragedy. We are experiencing the most inconceivable pain, and our hearts go out to everybody involved.”
WHAT ABOUT THE YOUTUBE VIDEO?
In a seven-minute-long YouTube video, Rodger outlines his plans for violent revenge because of repeated rejection from women. In it, Rodger sits in the driver’s seat of a car and threatens to kill sorority girls and people on the streets of Isla Vista. He said college has been a “torturous” experience for him and said at the age of 22 he had never kissed a girl and was a virgin. Shifman said the family called police several weeks ago after they were alarmed by YouTube videos about suicide and murders. It’s unclear whether the videos are related.
WHO WAS KILLED AND INJURED?
Among those killed is UC Santa Barbara sophomore Christopher Michaels-Martinez, 20. Michaels-Martinez’s father, Richard, held an emotional news conference on Saturday decrying the proliferation of guns he believes led to his son’s death. Martinez says he talked to his son just 45 minutes before he was shot and killed inside a deli. In a statement, the University of California, Santa Barbara said it’s “shocked and saddened” by the shootings.
WHAT WEAPONS DID HE USE?
Deputies found three semi-automatic handguns and hundreds of rounds in Rodger’s black BMW. Rodger stabbed his first three victims before shooting the others.
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