Elliot Rodger

He further said that he planned to kill his half-brother and stepmother, but was not mentally prepared to kill his father. The New Statesman posited that the manifesto may influence a "new generation of 'involuntary celibates'". A Facebook post made by the suspect of the 2018 Toronto van attack, Alek Minassian, in which Rodger is directly mentioned, seems to confirm this prediction:

Rodger was also mentioned in an online post by Scott Paul Beierle, the perpetrator of the 2018 Tallahassee shooting, who wrote, "I'd like to send a message now to the adolescent males [...] that are in the position, the situation, the disposition of Elliot Rodger, of not getting any, no love, no nothing."

A month after the rampage, the parents of the three stabbing victims expressed anger and frustration about multiple aspects of the case, including the failure of police to take preventive action before the attack, the limited amount of information that the authorities had released about their children's murders, more public interest in Rodger than in the victims, and perceived emphasis on the rights of the mentally ill over the rights of victims. On March 2, 2015, the families filed a federal wrongful death lawsuit against the county, the sheriff's department, the apartment building and the property management. The suit alleged that the defendants failed to recognize warning signs and take action to prevent the killings.

On February 18, 2015, the Santa Barbara County Sheriff's Office released a 64-page final investigative summary report of the killings.

On February 18, 2015, autopsy reports for all six victims were released by the Santa Barbara County Sheriff's Office as part of a 64 page final investigative summary report:

On May 23, 2015, the first anniversary of the attacks, hundreds of people gathered at UCSB for a candlelight vigil commemorating the six slain victims. The mother of George Chen was scheduled to speak at the event.

The 2014 Isla Vista killings were a series of killings by gunshot, stabbing and vehicle ramming on the evening of May 23 , 2014, in Isla Vista, California. The killings were carried out by 22-year-old Elliot Rodger. Rodger killed six people and injured fourteen others near the campus of the University of California, Santa Barbara (UCSB), before committing suicide.

On January 15, 2014, Rodger accused his roommate Hong of stealing his candles; he performed a citizen's arrest and called 9-1-1. Hong was charged with petty theft and pleaded guilty to the charge. Hong was one of Rodger's fatal stabbing victims. On April 30, about three weeks before the attack, Rodger's parents contacted police after becoming alarmed by his behavior and YouTube videos. He wrote in his manifesto that he had already planned the killings and purchased his guns by that time. The officers who interviewed him at his apartment would have found the weapons if they had conducted a search of his bedroom. Santa Barbara County Sheriff Bill Brown later said that the deputies "determined he did not meet the criteria for an involuntary hold" and that Rodger told them "it was a misunderstanding" with his parents.

Some California lawmakers called for an investigation into the deputies' contact with Rodger on April 30. At the time of their visit, he had already bought at least two handguns, which had been entered into the California gun ownership database under his name, as required by California's universal registration law. The deputies were unaware of this fact, however, because they did not check the statewide gun ownership database. They did not view the YouTube videos that had caused Rodger's parents to contact them. The sheriff's office defended the actions of the deputies, as did other state law enforcement agencies. Some state lawmakers said they planned to introduce legislation that they believe would help prevent future such tragedies. On September 30, 2014, in the wake of the incident, California legislators passed a "red flag law" to enable a person to ask a judge to have guns seized from a family member who they feel is a danger to themselves or to others. The gun owner will have an opportunity to contest the seizure. Gun rights groups, including the National Rifle Association, opposed the legislation, citing that the rights of regular gun owners may be put in jeopardy due to a misunderstanding. The law went into effect in 2016.

The United States House of Representatives voted on June 10, 2014, to pass House Resolution 608, titled Condemning the Senseless Rampage and Mass Shooting That Took Place in Isla Vista, California, on Friday May 23, 2014. Representative Lois Capps of California said that Congress needed to take more action to stop gun violence, saying, "We must not let the drumbeat fall silent. Congress has the power to act and we must." Representative Jackie Speier of California agreed with her, saying that "Americans, outraged by our inability to get anything done on the issue, are waiting for us to come to our senses and to act."

After turning 18, Rodger began rejecting the mental health care that his family provided, and he became increasingly isolated. He said that he was unable to make friends, although acquaintances said that he rebuffed their attempts to be friendly. Screenwriter Dale Launer, who was a friend of the Rodger family, stated that he had counseled Rodger on approaching and befriending women, but that Rodger did not follow the advice. He said in an interview, "I first met [Rodger] when he was aged eight or nine and I could see then that there was something wrong with him. I'm not a psychologist, but looking back now he strikes me as someone who was broken from the moment of conception ... You were hoping that inside there was a normal kid wanting to come out – that he would overcome his shyness and bloom in some way. What became evident, only after reading the manifesto and watching that video, was that what he was actually hiding was this horribly twisted little monster."

Referring to an incident that occurred on July 20 , 2013, Rodger wrote that "he tried to shove girls at a party over a ten-foot ledge after being mocked but failed", and instead other boys pushed him over it. He said that he "felt a snap in [his] ankle, followed by a stinging pain" and "tried to get away from there as fast as [he] could". Realizing that he left his Gucci sunglasses at the party, Rodger returned to retrieve them but the "same people he had tangled with before began mocking him and calling him names, then dragged him into the driveway to beat him up". One of Rodger's neighbors said that "he saw Rodger come home, crying" and said that Rodger claimed that he was going to kill the men involved, and kill himself. Rodger told investigating officers that he had been assaulted, but they determined that he might have been the aggressor. He wrote in his manifesto that the incident was the final trigger for his planning of the attack.

Rodger's 107,000-word manifesto was titled My Twisted World: The Story of Elliot Rodger. He e-mailed this manifesto to 34 individuals, including his therapist, his parents, and some of his other family members, former schoolteachers, and childhood friends. In the manifesto, Rodger claimed he originally sought to carry out his attack on Halloween of 2013, but reconsidered because "[t]here would be too many cops walking around during an event like Halloween, and cops are the only ones who could hinder my plans".

Mary Elizabeth Williams, a staff writer for Salon, objected to the media labeling Rodger as the "virgin killer", saying that it reinforces gender roles with a "not so subtle insinuation ... that one possible cause of male aggression is a lack of female sexual acquiescence". Amanda Hess, writing for Slate, argued that although Rodger killed more men than women, his motivations were misogynistic because his reason for hating the men he attacked was that he thought they stole the women he felt entitled to. Writing for Reason, Cathy Young countered with "that seems like a good example of stretching the concept into meaninglessness – or turning it into unfalsifiable quasi-religious dogma" and wrote that Rodger also wrote many hateful messages about other men. National Post columnist Barbara Kay criticized the focus on the female victims and pointed to gendered massacres targeting males, such as in wartime Srebrenica and a school massacre carried out by Boko Haram.

In September 2012, Rodger visited a shooting range to train in firing handguns. In November 2012, he purchased his first handgun, a Glock 34 pistol, in Goleta after doing research on handguns, choosing it as "an efficient and highly accurate weapon". In early 2013, Rodger bought two additional handguns, both SIG Sauer P226 pistols, writing that they were "of a much higher quality than the Glock" and "a lot more efficient". He purchased the weapons in Oxnard and Burbank California.

By the ninth grade, Rodger was "increasingly bullied", writing that he "cried by [himself] at school every day". He also started an obsession with the multiplayer-online game World of Warcraft during this time, with the game dominating his life for a majority of his teenage years, and briefly during his 20s. During his time at Crespi Carmelite High, he was bullied by other students including an incident that involved his head getting taped to his desk while he was asleep. According to Rodger, in 2012, "the one friend [he] had in the whole world who truly understood [him] ... blatantly said he didn't want to be friends anymore" without offering him a reason for ending the friendship. Rodger had a YouTube account and a blog titled "Elliot Rodger's Official Blog", both of which contained posts expressing loneliness and rejection. He wrote that he had been prescribed risperidone but refused to take it, stating, "After researching this medication, I found that it was the absolute wrong thing for me to take."

In July 2011, Rodger followed a couple he was jealous of out of a Starbucks in Goleta and threw coffee on them. In a later incident, he splashed his latte on two girls sitting at a bus stop in Isla Vista for not smiling back at him. In July 2012, Rodger purchased a Super Soaker, filled it with orange juice, and used it to spray a group playing kickball at Girsh Park.

Rodger attended Crespi Carmelite High School, an all-boys Catholic school in Encino, Los Angeles, and then Taft High School in Woodland Hills. He graduated from Independence Continuation High School in Lake Balboa in 2009. Rodger briefly attended Los Angeles Pierce College and Moorpark College before moving to Isla Vista on June 4, 2011. He attended Santa Barbara City College (SBCC). In his manifesto, he said that he dropped out of all his classes in February 2012. The school said he was no longer taking any classes.

According to his family's attorney and a family friend, Rodger had seen multiple therapists since he was eight years old and while he was a student at SBCC. The lawyer said that Rodger was "receiving psychiatric treatment", but he was never formally diagnosed with a mental illness. A psychiatrist had prescribed him antipsychotic medication used to treat schizophrenia and bipolar disorder, but he refused to take it. According to his mother, Rodger was diagnosed as having Asperger syndrome, but a formal medical diagnosis of the disorder was not made. He was diagnosed with pervasive developmental disorder not otherwise specified, another autism spectrum disorder, in 2007.

Elliot Oliver Robertson Rodger (July 24, 1991 – May 23, 2014) was confirmed by police to be the sole perpetrator of the killings.