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Isla Vista shooter's father: 'My son caused so much pain and suffering' Elliot Rodger’s father says of killings – we did not see it coming
(about 9 hours later)
The father of gunman who killed six people in a violent spree in Isla Vista, California, last month has spoken publicly about the shootings for the first time. The father of a British-born gunman who killed six people in
Film-maker Peter Rodger, an assistant director on the Hunger Games, said he did not believe his son to be capable of such violence. California last month has spoken publicly about the attack for the first
“Every night I go to sleep, I wake up and I think of those young men and young women that have died and are injured and were terrorised when my son did that,” Rodger said in an interview with Barbara Walters on ABC News’s 20/20. “My son caused so much pain and suffering for so many families.” time, saying he had believed there was no way that his son "could hurt a
His son Elliot, 22, killed six University of California students in the 23 May rampage before killing himself. flea".
Some family members of the victims have criticized how police have handled the case, while others have become vocal advocates for gun control. Film-maker Peter Rodger, second unit director on The Hunger Games
“When you go to sleep normally, you have a nightmare, you wake up and ‘oh everything’s okay,’” Rodger said. “Now, I might have a nice dream and then I wake up and slowly the truth of what happened dawns on me, and that is that my son was a mass murderer.” series of films, spoke of how he continued to be haunted day and night
by the actions of his 22-year-old son, Elliot, who stabbed three
University of California students and shot three others in the 23 May
rampage before killing himself.
"Every night I go to sleep, I wake up and I think of those young men
and young women that have died and are injured and were terrorised and
my son did that," Rodger said in an interview with Barbara Walters on
ABC News's 20/20. "My son caused so much pain and suffering for so many
families."
He added: "When you go to sleep normally, you have a nightmare, you wake up and 'oh, everything's OK.'
"Now, I go to sleep, I might have a nice dream and then I wake up and
slowly the truth of what happened dawns on me, and, you know, that is
that my son was a mass murderer."
He added: "There is no way that I
thought this boy could hurt a flea. What I don't get is … we did not
see this coming, at all. This is the American horror story, or the
world's horror story, is when you have somebody who, on the outside, is
one thing and, on the inside, is something different. And you don't see
it."
In a video that the gunman uploaded to YouTube before embarking on the killing spree, he identified himself as Elliot Rodger and said that he had spent the first five years of his life in Sussex.
He detailed his so-called "day of retribution", stating that he would take his revenge against humanity.
He
also emailed a lengthy written manifesto to his mother, father and
therapist that detailed his plans and his contempt for everyone he felt
was responsible for his sexual frustration.
It subsequently emerged
that police officers who had visited him three weeks before the
killings were aware that he had posted disturbing videos online but did
not watch them, and they did not know about his final video detailing
his "day of retribution" until after the rampage had taken place.
Some
family members of the victims have criticised the actions of the
police, while others have become vocal advocates for gun control. Last
week, the parents of the first three people who were killed said they
were frustrated by authorities' handling of the case.
The bodies
of Rodger's flatmates, James Hong and David Wang, were found inside
their beachside apartment near the University of California's Santa
Barbara campus in Isla Vista along with that of a friend who had been
visiting them, George Chen.
They had been stabbed to death. It is not clear how the slightly built Rodger was able to overpower them.
In
a joint interview, the victims' parents told the Washington Post that
they visited the crime scene and saw no blood on the walls or ceiling.
Police had removed a 6ft by 5ft piece of carpet in one bedroom and vinyl
flooring around the toilet had been cut. The parents expressed
unhappiness at the amount of information they had been given, but said
the limited amount of material removed from the apartment suggested the
killings were confined to a small space.
The three people shot
dead were named as Katherine Cooper, 22, and Veronika Weiss, 19,
students who were shot outside a sorority house, and Christopher
Michael-Martinez, 20, another student who was shot at a delicatessen.
Rodger
was found dead with a gunshot wound in his black BMW. He had three 9mm
semi-automatic guns and more than 400 rounds of unused ammunition.
The full interview airs on Friday night.The full interview airs on Friday night.