2014 Isla Vista killings
The 2014 Isla Vista killings were two misogynistic terror attacks in Isla Vista, California. On the evening of Friday, May 23, 22-year-old Elliot Rodger killed six people and injured fourteen others by gunshot, stabbing and vehicle ramming near the campus of the University of California, Santa Barbara (UCSB), before fatally shooting himself.
2014 Isla Vista killings | |
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Isla Vista Isla Vista (southern California) Isla Vista Isla Vista (the United States) | |
Location | Isla Vista, California, U.S. |
Coordinates | 34.412°N 119.859°W |
Date | May 23, 2014 9:27 – 9:35 p.m. (UTC−8:00) |
Target | Students of the University of California, Santa Barbara, roommates |
Attack type |
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Weapons |
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Deaths | 7 (3 by stabbing; 4 by gunfire, including the perpetrator) |
Injured | 14 (7 by gunfire, 7 struck by motor vehicle) |
Perpetrator | Elliot Rodger |
Motive | Misogynist terrorism, revenge for sexual and social rejection, incel ideology |
Rodger stabbed three men to death in his apartment, apparently separately as they arrived. About three hours later, he drove to a sorority house and, after failing to get inside, shot three women outside, two of whom died. He next drove past a nearby deli and shot and killed a male student who was inside. He then drove through Isla Vista, shooting and wounding several pedestrians from his car and striking others with his car. He exchanged gunfire with police twice, and was injured in the hip. After his car crashed into a parked vehicle, he was found dead inside with a self-inflicted gunshot wound to the head.
Before driving to the sorority house, Rodger uploaded a video to YouTube titled "Elliot Rodger's Retribution", in which he outlined his planned attack and his motives. He explained that he wanted to punish women for rejecting him, and sexually active men because he envied them. He also emailed a lengthy autobiographical manuscript to friends, his therapist and family members; the document appeared on the Internet and became widely known as his manifesto. In it, he described his childhood, family conflicts, frustration over his inability to find a girlfriend, his hatred of women, his contempt for couples (particularly interracial couples) and his plans for what he described as "retribution". In February 2020, the International Centre for Counter-Terrorism at the Hague retroactively described the killings as an act of misogynist terrorism. The US Secret Service describes it as "misogynistic extremism."