Alleged UCSB Shooter Left Series of YouTube Videos Hinting at Isla Vista Rampage

Elliot Rodger, the 22-year-old alleged culprit of a Friday night drive-by shooting close to the University of California Santa Barbara that left seven dead and seven wounded, left a series of disturbing YouTube videos days before the tragic event.

The most recent of these, which has since been taken down from the video sharing platform but is still available on Gawker, is entitled “Elliot Rodger’s Retribution” and is a nearly 7-minute long monologue full of rancor and spite towards women. It also forewarns of violence against the residents of Isla Vista, a neighborhood close UCSB known for it’s constant partying (Fusion producer Camille Santochi profiled Island Vista back in April). Rodger wasn’t student at UCSB—he attended Santa Barbara City College—but did live in the neighborhood.

Below are some of the more disturbing quotes from Rodger’s video:

• “It all has to come to this. Tomorrow is the day of retribution. the day in which i will have my revenge against humanity, against all of you. For the last eight years of my life, ever since I hit puberty, I’ve been forced to endure an existence of loneliness, rejection, and unfulfilled desires all because girls have never been attracted to me.”
• “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.”
• “After I’ve annihilated every single girl in the sorority house, i’ll take to the streets of isla vista and slay every person i see there. all those popular kids who live such lives of hedonistic pleasure while i’ve had to rot in loneliness for all these years.”
• “If I can’t have you, girls, I will destroy you [laughter]. You’ve denied me a happy life and in turn I will deny you life.”
• “I hate all of you. Humanity is a disgusting, wretched, depraved species. If I had it in my power, I would stop at nothing to reduce every single one of you to mountains of skulls and rivers of blood. And rightfully so. You deserve to be annihilated.”

Although authorities have not revealed the name of the shooter, Rodger’s family issued a statement via their lawyer saying that they believed that Elliot Rodger was behind the shooting. According to family attorney Alan Shifman, Rodger had been diagnosed with Asperger’s syndrome and had been receiving professional help.

This portrait of a troubled young man is congruous with the other posts on YouTube. In one video, Rodger walks along a golf course and shows anger and frustration at constantly being ignored by women.

In another video, Rodger expresses envy at a couple sitting by the beach:

He also posted two videos where he explicitly talks about how women don’t find him attractive.

All of these were posted within 24 hours prior to the Isla Vista shooting.

Fidel Martinez is an editor at Fusion.net. He’s also a Texas native and a lifelong El Tri fan.