• Video
  • Shop
  • Culture
  • Family
  • Wellness
  • Food
  • Living
  • Style
  • Travel
  • News
  • Book Club
  • Newsletter
  • Privacy Policy
  • Your US State Privacy Rights
  • Children's Online Privacy Policy
  • Interest-Based Ads
  • Terms of Use
  • Do Not Sell My Info
  • Contact Us
  • © 2026 ABC News
  • News

Elliot Rodger's Previous Attacks on Women, Couples

NaN:NaN
Victims Struggle to Recover After Santa Barbara Shooting
YouTube
ByDAN GOOD, CLAYTON SANDELL and CECILIA VEGA
May 27, 2014, 12:33 PM

May 27, 2014— -- Elliot Rodger's rage-filled manifesto documents his growing fury with the world and his initial attacks on women and couples that he envied. One of those attacks occurred on his 22nd birthday.

Fueled by vodka, Rodger decided on July 20, 2013 to party with the California college students he despised.

"I was giving the female gender one last chance to provide me with the pleasures I deserved from them," he later wrote in a 137-page manifesto.

Read: Father of Santa Barbara Victim Sobs and Rails Against Son's Death

That "last chance" turned bleak – a night that reflected his ambitions, fury and warped perspectives. It became a flashpoint leading up to last Friday's attacks that left six others dead and 13 injured.

WATCH: Massive Crowd Comes to Mourn Santa Barbara Shooting Victims

Rodger bought a bottle of vodka that night, taking a few shots for courage, maybe downing one too many. Other students were partying – "good looking popular kids," as he identified them. Without the buzz, he would have been too intimidated to mingle.

He walked into a house party. Hip-hop music blasted from the DJ booth. The students played beer pong.

Read: Santa Barbara Shooter Was Angry Girls Were 'Repulsed by Me'

Rodger soon became frustrated that no one was talking to him. Instead, women were giving "obnoxious slobs" attention, he wrote. With his inhibitions blurred by the liquor, Rodger's rage boiled over. He confronted a couple before walking outside, "realizing how pathetic I looked all by myself when everyone was partying around me."

Elliot Rodger is shown in this undated photo.

He decided to climb onto a wooden ledge and plop onto a chair. Some partiers eventually climbed onto the ledge, too. But since the students weren't talking to him, Rodger snapped.

"That was the last straw," he wrote. "A dark, hate-fueled rage overcame my entire being, and I tried to push as many of them as I could from the 10-foot ledge."

He didn't succeed. The students pushed him back, and Rodger fell onto the street, breaking his ankle.

As he stumbled away, he realized his Gucci sunglasses were missing. He turned back – but he was so drunk, he forgot where the party was, so he ended up walking onto a nearby front yard, demanding to know who took his sunglasses.

Read: Elliot Rodger's Trail of Carnage

The students there called him names, and more fighting followed. Eventually Rodger staggered home, beaten and bloody. No one offered to help. His sunglasses – as well as his necklace, he later learned – were gone. And his ego was crushed, he recounted in his manifesto.

Rodger was fearful he might get in trouble, so he concocted an altered story about the ledge incident to police.

"Two police did interview me, and I told them that those boys deliberately pushed me off of the ledge after I acted 'cocky' towards them," Rodger wrote. "Since there was no actual evidence, the whole case was shortly dismissed."

As he recovered from his broken ankle, Rodger focused on his "Day of Retribution," a plan he would carry to fruition 10 months later.

Students march on the campus of the University of California, Santa Barbara during a candlelight vigil held to honor the victims of Friday night's mass shooting on May 24, 2014, in Isla Vista, Calif.

Rodger's parents were also alerted to a menacing video their son had posted and immediately headed for their son's apartment fearing he was about to do something violent and called police while on their way. But they, too, were too late because Rodger had already put his lethal plan into action.

Up Next in News—

Truck driver describes helping save young woman from alleged kidnapping

June 4, 2026

Oahu man speaks out after being bitten by a shark while surfing

June 4, 2026

Karen Bass advances in Los Angeles mayoral race as opponent currently remains unclear

June 3, 2026

Drag queen Pattie Gonia publicly rejects proposal from Patagonia on trademark lawsuit

June 2, 2026

Shop GMA Favorites

ABC will receive a commission for purchases made through these links.

Sponsored Content by Taboola

The latest lifestyle and entertainment news and inspiration for how to live your best life - all from Good Morning America.
  • Contests
  • Terms of Use
  • Privacy Policy
  • Do Not Sell My Info
  • Children’s Online Privacy Policy
  • Advertise with us
  • Your US State Privacy Rights
  • Interest-Based Ads
  • About Nielsen Measurement
  • Press
  • Feedback
  • Shop FAQs
  • ABC News
  • ABC
  • All Videos
  • All Topics
  • Sitemap

© 2026 ABC News
  • Privacy Policy— 
  • Your US State Privacy Rights— 
  • Children's Online Privacy Policy— 
  • Interest-Based Ads— 
  • Terms of Use— 
  • Do Not Sell My Info— 
  • Contact Us— 

© 2026 ABC News