Chilling account of Isla Vista rampage released by Santa Barbara sheriff
Nine months after Elliot Rodger's murderous rampage through Isla Vista, the Santa Barbara County Sheriff's Department on Thursday released its investigative report on the tragedy.
The document provides a chilling moment-by-moment account of the events of May 23, 2014, when Rodger's attack left seven dead, including himself, and 14 people injured.
The 68-page document includes new information about the timeline of events, how and when the victims died, and witness statements.
It also confirms the Sheriff's Office's previous statements that Rodger killed himself with a single gunshot wound to the head as deputies closed in on him.
The report indicates that Rodger's initial rampage was directed at his roommates and one of their friends, and that he then attempted to target a sorority.
When that attempt failed, he began randomly targeting victims who just happened to be in the area.
Three men, all UCSB students, were Rodger's first victims.
Found dead in Rodger’s apartment in the 6500 block of Seville Road were Cheng Yuan Hong, 20, and George Chen, 19, both of San Jose, and Weihan Wang, 20, of Fremont. Hong and Wang were Rodger's roommates.
The three were brutally stabbed and hacked to death, one at a time, in the hours before Rodger took to the streets of Isla Vista shortly before 9:30 p.m. in his late-model black BMW coupe, shooting passers-by with semi-automatic weapons and mowing them down with his car.
The reports indicated the three essentially were ambushed, and suffered dozens of stab wounds each, inflicted with two fixed-blade knives.
Investigators believe Wang was the first to die, followed by Hong, and later Chen, who had come from his dormitory to visit his friends.
Two women were gunned down while standing outside the Alpha Phi sorority house on the 800 block of Embarcadero Del Norte — Katherine Breann “Katie” Cooper, 22, of Chino Hills, and Veronika Elizabeth Weiss, 19, of Westlake Village — both UCSB students who were members of the Delta Delta Delta sorority.
Rodger drove to the Isla Vista Deli Mart in the 6500 block of Pardall Road, got out of his vehicle and entered the store, where he fatally shot Christopher Ross Michaels-Martinez, a 20-year-old UCSB student from Los Osos.
Seven more people were injured by gunfire and seven were hurt by Rodger hitting them with his vehicle during his 8-minute rampage through Isla Vista. Read more at Noozhawk.com »
This story was originally published February 19, 2015 at 12:45 PM with the headline "Chilling account of Isla Vista rampage released by Santa Barbara sheriff."