Elliot Roger is the son of Hollywood director Peter Roger. Shooting May 23, 2014 on the campus of the University of California in Santa Barbara

Every year, new stories appear in the media, confirming that the world around us is not at all safe. And it's not just about gangs of terrorists or organized crime. Often, only one person with mental problems can be a danger to society.

"Anti-hero", which will be discussed, once again proved that an armed serial killer can become a seemingly prosperous citizen. An American student named Roger, a young man from a good family, made shooting right on the campus of the college where he studied. On May 23, 2014, a twenty-two year old man, armed with a pistol, shot passers-by from the window of his own BMW until he died himself.

The shooting in Ayla Vista, a campus in the state of California, caused great publicity. Two dozen people killed and wounded by Elliot Roger, according to most citizens, were the result of free access to weapons and the inability of the police to recognize the threat before committing criminal acts. But was it possible to avoid these events? And was the crime that Elliot Roger committed?

Parents

Elliot's father, Briton Peter Roger, worked at home as a director, producer and actor. The career of Roger Sr. was developed in Los Angeles, where he moved with his wife and son in the mid-90's. True fame to Roger brought the project "Hunger Games" - a film in which Peter worked as an assistant director.

At the time of the events in the suburbs of Santa Barbara, Peter Rogers had been divorced for many years with his wife and mother Elliot, Malaysian Li Chin. Despite this, both parents provided their son with college education and supported Elliott financially.

Biography

Before the tragic events, the life of the future murderer was developing quite well. Elliot Roger was born in 1991 in London, grew up in American Los Angeles. I went to a good school, went to college and lived separately from my parents in Ayla Vista, a student campus, near which is the respectable city of Santa Barbara. To study, the student came on a black BMW, a gift from his parents. The young man, together with his father, attended Hollywood premieres, "star" events. In particular, Elliot was shown in photographs from the premiere of the popular Hollywood movie "Hunger Games" (the film was released in 2012).

But the externally prosperous biography had a "downside". As a child Elliott was diagnosed with Asperger's syndrome, in fact, an easy form of autism. Like most people with a similar disease, Roger was anxious, withdrawn. Elliot had difficulties in communicating with others, he was hard at converting with people, could not make friends either in school or in college. According to the parents, the young man almost all his life had to be observed by a psychiatrist and receive treatment.

Living in the Net - blogger and "heather"

Problems with communication Elliot Roger compensated for the active activities on the Internet. In addition to accounts in social networks and on various sites, the student maintained his own blog, which repeatedly published negative statements. Children's grievances, too modest, according to Elliott, the financial condition of parents, hate motivated by racism - in their videos on YouTube, the student frankly, without hiding his name, talked about everything that irritated him.

But the main displeasure in Elliot was caused by young girls. The young man said that his intimate life does not work out. Complaints that girls ignore him, Elliot's messages mixed with aggressive fantasies in relation to the opposite sex. Even people who read Elliot's revelations on the Web called him "the future serial killer." But for whatever reason, neither the police nor the native guy saw any threats in the messages?

Disturbing symptoms - what did the police miss?

The police received in advance signals about Elliott's aggressive messages on the Web - statements about this appeared almost immediately after the killings in Ayla Vista. A month before the bloody events Elliot's parents turned to the police, having watched his son's video on YouTube. The authorities visited the student, but after talking with Roger, they did nothing. The police came to the conclusion that Elliot was a "polite and wonderful" person, besides, he promised to remove the entire video. At the time of the visit, weapons and ammunition were already hidden in the student's home. Therefore, even an ordinary search and seizure of the assassin's arsenal could prevent a mass execution of people.

After the experts involved in the analysis of the identity of Roger, justified the police by the fact that they took the future killer for one of the "network trolls", not a threat in real life. It is also known that this was not the only case when the future killer drew the attention of the guards of order. Elliot Roger himself claimed that he was beaten, and later about a small amount of theft.

The last manifesto

His latest message on YouTube Elliot Roger published on the eve of the crime. In a seven-minute video called "Elliott Roger's Revenge" the student again spoke of loneliness, complained that the girls do not pay attention to "such a great guy", preferring others. Roger was indignant that at 22 he "never kissed" girls, let alone other things. At the end of the video Elliot Roger announced his intention to "punish" all the girls, destroying them. The young man accurately indicated where and when he would "kill everyone he met." Overnight, the video managed to score about five hundred thousand hits, but its threats were again ignored. There was no response from the users who looked at the message. In addition, the student managed to write and publish a farewell manifesto, in which he outlays his desires and aggressive plans on 140 pages, intending to lure as many people as possible to him and deal with them.

Shooting on campus

The inaction of others led to the fact that Elliott managed to carry out "retribution." In the evening of May 23, Roger slaughtered three people in his house - students of Asian descent. After the massacre, the student sat in his BMW and at full speed drove through the streets of the campus of Ayla Vista, shooting passers-by from the window. He managed to kill two girls, students of the local university, and wound one more. According to witnesses, Roger tried to get inside the house of the women's student society, but the door was closed. Then the murderer returned to the car and continued to shoot passers-by. Someone was injured from a pistol, someone was under the wheels of BMW.

The slaughter in the campus ended in a gun battle between the police and the distraught student. Trying to get away from the chase, Roger crashed into a car parked on the side of the road. The criminal arriving in time guards found in the broken BMW already dead. Later in the press there was a message that the killer of six people committed suicide.

Life after homicides

By the evening of the next day, residents of the town of Ayla Vista gathered in a local park in memory of the dead, and Elliott Roger's family officially apologized to all the victims and the families of the victims.

Calm California city of Santa Barbara shocked the bloody massacre in the surrounding area. In the car of the killer, the police found three semi-automatic pistols and four hundred cartridges to them. Subsequently it became known that all the weapons in the car of a mentally unstable student were acquired by him legally, in three different stores.

The story of the serial killer sparked a spate of discussions in the press and the Internet. The society was frightened and outraged that the police could not stop the criminal, despite his public activities on the Internet. Often requests were made to review weapons laws. But the theme of aggression towards women in modern society is still being discussed very actively. The network has a popular tag # YesAllWomen - one of the most commonly used in discussions of sexism and misogyny.