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 The university canceled classes for Tuesday, the first day since
the killings on Friday that the campus would have been open, but
faculty were asked to be on hand to meet with distraught students.
A memorial service for the six students who were slain on Friday
night was scheduled for afternoon and eight large blackboards were
erected on a street corner in the community of Isla Vista, near the
campus, where students were encouraged to write messages in chalk.
"All of my friends are very strongly affected by this," said William
Tobolowsky, a 20-year-old microbiology major at UCSB. "Isla Vista is
a close-knit community where everyone knows everyone to a certain
extent."
"It's important that everyone has the opportunity to be sad and
upset," he said. "It's important to have a day dedicated to it so we
have time to reflect."
Police say 22-year-old Elliot Rodger, the son of "Hunger Games"
assistant director Peter Rodger, stabbed his two roommates and
another young man to death in his Isla Vista apartment, then shot
and killed three people near the campus before turning the gun on
himself.
All six of his victims, two women and four men, were between the
ages of 19 and 22 and were students at the UCSB. Another 13 people
were wounded, including eight who were shot by Rodger as he sped
through town in his black BMW, exchanging gunfire with police.
Officers found Rodger, who was bent on revenge against women he
believed had snubbed him sexually, dead in his car with three
legally purchased pistols and some 400 rounds of ammunition.
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Santa Barbara County Sheriff's officials have acknowledged that
deputies had visited Rodger at his apartment weeks before the
shooting at the request of his mother, who had been disturbed by
videos he posted online, but left after he assured them he meant no
harm.
Recounting that visit in a manifesto he sent to friends and
relatives shortly before the shooting, Rodger said that if the
deputies at his door had searched his room, they would have found
the firearms and denied him the chance to carry out his violent
plans.
That disclosure has led some to question whether police, who say
they could not have searched the young man's apartment without a
warrant, could have done more to prevent the attacks.
"When it got to the point that the parents called the police, it
makes me wonder if the police even looked at the videos," neighbor
Chris Pollard, 22, told Reuters. "If they'd looked at the videos,
they could've done some sort of court order to do a search warrant."
(Writing and additional reporting by Dan Whitcomb; editing by G
Crosse and Cynthia Johnston)
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