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 carnage.
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 report includes new information about the timeline of events, how and when the victims died, and witness statements.
It also confirms the Sheriff’s Department’s previous statements that Rodger killed himself with a single gunshot wound to the head as deputies closed in on him.
[Scroll down to read the complete report]
The report indicates that Rodger’s initial violence was directed at his two roommates and one of their friends, and that he then tried to target a sorority.
When that attempt failed, he began randomly targeting victims who just happened to be in the area, shooting some and running down others with his car.
Three men, all UC Santa Barbara students, were Rodger’s first victims, according to the report.
Found dead in Rodger’s apartment in the 6500 block of Seville Road were Cheng Yuan “James” Hong, 20, and George Chen, 19, both of San Jose, and Weihan “David” 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 as they entered the apartment, 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.
Hong and Wang shared a bedroom, which was where their bodies were found.
The coroner’s autopsy showed that Wang suffered 15 stab wound and 23 incision wounds, many of the latter appearing to be defensive wounds.
Timeline of Isla Vista Massacre Reconstructs a Murderous Sequence
Hong was stabbed 25 times, and had 12 incision wounds, the coroner reported, with some inflicted after he was dead.
Chen, whose body was found in a bathroom, suffered 94 stab wounds and 11 incision wounds, according to the coroner.
Some of those on his hands and arms suggested that he fought back against his attacker.
Toxicology tests revealed that none of the three appeared to have been drugged as part of the attack.
Two women were gunned down while standing outside the Alpha Phi sorority house in 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, where he fatally shot Christopher Ross Michaels-Martinez, a 20-year-old UCSB student from Los Osos.
Seven more people were wounded by gunfire and seven were injured by Rodger, who hit them with his car during his eight-minute rampage through Isla Vista.
Rodger shot himself while he was still driving, and his car crashed in the 6500 block of Del Playa Drive.
The autopsy showed that Rodger died of a single gunshot wound that entered the right side of his head and exited the left side.
Toxicology tests revealed he had caffeine, benzodiazepines and alprazolam in his body, according to the report.
According to videos Rodger posted online and a lengthy “manifesto” reviewed by Noozhawk, Rodger was seeking revenge and retribution for what he perceived as an unending string of rejections and slights by women in the college community.
— Noozhawk executive editor Tom Bolton can be reached at tbolton@noozhawk.com. Follow Noozhawk on Twitter: @noozhawk, @NoozhawkNews and @NoozhawkBiz. Connect with Noozhawk on Facebook.
Isla Vista Investigative Summary Report by Santa Barbara County Sheriff’s Department