The self-proclaimed “angel of death” was later committed.
This Memorial Day Weekend, the son of a second filmmaker killed six people in the same university town. Do “The Hunger Games” ring a bell.
Director Peter Rodger took his son, Elliot, 22, to the opening.
Elliot’s killing field started in his apartment complex where he stabbed to death three male roommates.
What they had to do with his being horny and a virgin was not clear. These deaths didn’t fit the misogynistic motive that quickly ignited Twitter.
Not even Daniel Tosh can offer this guy a redemption.
Being a weekend, news outlets had skeleton staffs, and perhaps did not know how to look up events in 2001 in the University of California Santa Barbara town.
Many media outlets kept reporting Elliot had shot dead six people, plus himself, knocked down some bicyclists, then crashed his shiny BMW into another vehicle after being wounded by deputies.
Elliot had done everything but hire a plane to carry a banner over Santa Barbara announcing his plans.
He posted a “chilling” video on YouTube a day earlier. It was not nearly as chilling as a surveillance camera in a deli that he shot up, killing 20-year-old Christopher Martinez. CNN said what was obviously an important piece of evidence was a network exclusive.
The country has become so used to dealing with these massacres, at least as far back as Columbine in 1999, Christopher’s father, Richard was ready.
He “self identified,” a sort of new kind of “selfie,” where you tell the world that one of your family was among those killed.
To help news crews announced his name and said, “common spelling.”
The New York Times told the brave story of Rodger’s parents speeding up from Los Angeles after they clicked on his killer 140-page manifesto.
“Parents frantic race failed to stop killings,” the headline said.
Law enforcement congratulated itself on reacting so fast some lives no doubt were saved.
They claim he “flew under the radar.” In fact they had met with him at least three times.
The Southern Poverty Center said Elliot was a frequent contributor on an online hate site.
So far, the only deviation from the script of Dylan Klebold and Eric Harris at Columbine was that Elliot hadn’t been arrested and put on probation for stealing electronics from a car.
Those cops also said they could not have known his online threats were serious.
Last month deputies did a check on Elliot but found him a nice, shy, quiet kid, though obviously mentally disturbed.
"I had the striking and devastating fear that someone had somehow discovered what I was planning to do, and reported me for it," Rodger wrote toward the end of a 140-page account of his life. "If that was the case, the police would have searched my room, found all of my guns and weapons, along with my writings about what I plan to do with them,” CNN reported Elliot had written.
After the Columbine shootings it became very clear that if the killers’ parents had searched their basements they would have found weapons and a video tape laying out their plains.
As for mental illness, Elliot had the best health care money can buy.
Given everyone in the Isla Vista area’s knowledge of how to react to massacres perhaps Hollywood should build a filming lot for the sequel.
This story cries out for the full cast and crew.
The dead roommates, all males, are Cheng Yuan Hong, 20; George Chen, 19, and Weihan Wang. All University of California Santa Barbara students.
The three shot dead are Katherine Breann Cooper, 22; Veronika Elizabeth Weiss, 19, Christopher Ross Michaels-Martinez, 20. Police said they know of 13 people who were wounded
Sources:
CNN
New York Times
Santa Barbara Independent
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