On May 23, 2014, 22-year-old Elliot Rodger launched a calculated killing spree in Isla Vista, California, near the University of California, Santa Barbara. His rampage unfolded over the course of several hours, leaving six people dead and fourteen injured before he took his own life with a gunshot to the head.
The attack began at his apartment, where Rodger stabbed his three roommates to death. He then drove to the Alpha Phi sorority house near campus and attempted to enter. When no one answered the door, he shot and killed two women who were nearby on the sidewalk. Minutes later, he entered a nearby deli and fatally shot a male student. From there, Rodger continued his attack by driving through Isla Vista’s streets, shooting pedestrians from his vehicle and intentionally striking others with his car. He exchanged gunfire with police twice before crashing into a parked vehicle. Officers found him dead in the driver’s seat.
Rodger had prepared for the massacre for months and documented every step. Hours before the killings, he uploaded a YouTube video titled “Elliot Rodger’s Retribution,” where he addressed the camera with a cold, rehearsed calm. In the video, he complained bitterly about being rejected by women, mocked those who found romantic success, and claimed that he was superior to them all. He referred to himself as “the supreme gentleman,” a phrase that would later become widely circulated in online forums. He smiled as he described the violence he intended to commit, framing it as a long-overdue punishment for those who had denied him the life he felt entitled to.
In addition to the video, Rodger emailed a 141-page manifesto to therapists, family members, and acquaintances. The document revealed a fixation on status, wealth, and female attention. He described his hatred for women in graphic, obsessive terms and expressed envy toward sexually active men. Rodger identified as an “incel,” short for “involuntary celibate”—a term adopted by an online subculture of men who blame women for their lack of sexual and romantic success. He saw himself as a victim of societal injustice, and his attack was designed to be both a personal statement and a spectacle.
Rodger had a history of mental health issues, including a diagnosis of Asperger’s syndrome and long-standing treatment for depression and social anxiety. He had seen numerous therapists and psychiatrists. Concerned posts he made online led police to perform a wellness check just weeks before the attack, but officers, finding him articulate and calm, did not search his room or pursue further action. By that time, Rodger had already purchased multiple firearms and amassed ammunition.
Despite these red flags, he legally acquired three handguns and carried out a massacre with chilling deliberation. After his death, he became a symbolic figure in certain corners of the internet, particularly among online incel communities that celebrated his violence as a form of revenge. The incident forced new scrutiny on how misogynistic extremism spreads online and how it can serve as a motivating ideology for mass violence.
Rodger’s rampage was not spontaneous or chaotic. It was carefully orchestrated, documented in video and text, and designed to deliver a message of entitlement, rage, and punishment. His legacy is one of both horror and warning, showing what can happen when untreated resentment evolves into violent ideology and is allowed to take form.
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