A student’s deadly rampage stuns Santa Barbara

Isla Vista murder victims. Top row from left to right: Weihan Wang, George Chen, Cheng Yuan Hong. Bottom row from left to right: Christopher Martinez, Katie Cooper, Veronika Weiss

Police say the 22-year-old who went on a killing rampage on and near the UC Santa Barbara campus was obsessed with exacting “retribution” for a lifetime of isolation he said he experienced.

Authorities say after Elliot Rodger killed three people in his apartment, he shot and killed three other people at random Friday, and injured 13 more with either gunshots or with his car.

Rodger’s parents raced to his Santa Barbara-area community after his mother saw his online threats, but they heard the news of the shooting on the radio as they were driving.

The Los Angeles Times reported yesterday that mother Chin Rodger got a call from her son’s therapist shortly before the shootings about a ranting email sent by their son, and a manifesto he titled “My Twisted World.”

Then the mother found his video vowing to kill people.

Federal agents have searched the San Fernando Valley homes of Rodger’s parents.

Agents have also obtained warrants to search the gun shops where he purchased his firearms, although police say all the guns were bought legally.

For more on what we know about Rodger and his motives, KCRW’s Steve Chiotakis spoke with Tyler Hayden, news editor at The Santa Barbara Independent.