Sad news from this weekend. 22-year-old Elliot Rodger went on a violent rampage near the University of California Santa Barbara’s campus on Friday night, killing six and injuring seven. It’s still unclear weather Rodger’s fatal bullet wound to the head was self-inflicted or the result of a firefight after he attempted to flee the scene. Rodger, the son of Hollywood director Peter Roger, planned the rampage and gave his reasoning in a now-deleted YouTube manifesto titled “Retribution” according to Hollywood Life.
“College is the time when everyone experiences those things such as sex and fun and pleasure,” Roger, who was a virgin, said in his video. “But in those years, I’ve had to rot in loneliness. It’s not fair. 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.”
Roger reportedly targeted sorority girls (and referred to them as “spoiled, stuck-up blonde slut(s)” according to Cosmopolitan) and tried to barrage the Alpha Phi sorority house. Though he was unsuccessful, he shot and killed two students. Rogers got into his BMW afterwards, driving to a deli mart and aimlessly firing into the store where he killed a 20-year-old bystander. He stabbed and killed his three roommates before leaving and launching into his deadly spree.
While details are still being gathered and released, our hearts go out to the families of Roger’s slain roommates, Veronika Weiss, 19, and Katie Cooper, 22, Delta Delta sorority sisters and casualties of Friday’s incidents as well as the family of Christopher Martinez, 20. The event is tragic, no doubt, but has reopened a dialogue on gun laws and women’s rights, specifically with this morning’s trending topic, #yesallwomen. I think that Martinez’s father, Richard, said it best – “when will this insanity stop?”
[Lead image via Hollywood Reporter]
Via College Candy
