Alleged gunman Elliot Rodger, 22, lived a life of privilege
May 25, 2014 - 10:25AM
Elliot Rodger's chilling video analysed after 6 dead
Authorities are yet to confirm the identity of the gunman responsible for the death of six in Santa Barbara, California, but the movements of 22-year-old Elliot Rodger are being investigated. He died at the scene.
He drove a gleaming black BMW car. He went to college in Santa Barbara and his family lived in Calabasas, the exclusive Los Angeles enclave which is home to Justin Bieber and the Kardashian family. His father, a film director, socialised with Hollywood's elite.
Whichever way you look at it, Elliot Rodger, the 22-year-old alleged gunman in a rampage that left six dead and seven injured and which was described by a sheriff as "the work of a madman", appeared to have lived a privileged life.
Elliot Rodger with his parents on the
Hunger Games red carpet.
And yet he felt alone and unable to establish meaningful friendships, rejected by his peers, and in particular young women, a subject he spoke about in a series of video diary entries posted to social media.
Rodger's father is Peter Rodger, a director who worked on
The Hunger Games. Peter Rodger also wrote and directed a documentary about religion titled
Oh My God, which featured interviews with Hugh Jackman, Ringo Starr, Seal, Bob Geldof, Baz Luhrmann, Jack Thompson and David Copperfield.
Elliot's stepmother is Moroccan-born French actress Soumaya Akaaboune, one of the stars of
Les Vraies Housewives, the French adaptation of the "Real Housewives" reality TV format. She also had small roles in the Matt Damon thriller
Green Zone, the Gerard Butler romantic comedy
Playing For Keeps and the Linda Lovelace biopic
Lovelace.
'A living hell': Elliot Rodger posted a video on YouTube titled
Retribution in which he vowed to take revenge on girls for rejecting him.
Photo: Reuters
Akaaboune met Elliot's father about 15 years ago; the pair later had a son together, who is now six.
Elliot's final video entry, titled
Retribution, has become a
focal point of media attention on the case, but earlier video diary entries echo its sentiment.
"This world is such a beautiful place. It's such a tragedy I've had to live such a pathetic life in it. All because of the cruelty of humanity," Elliot Rodger said in one video diary entry.
In another, he longed to be a child again.
"Those were the happy years. Life is so much fairer when you're a kid," he said. "When you're a kid you don't have to worry about being attractive or how many girls like you. No one has unfair advantages. And when when you hit puberty your life either becomes heaven on earth or a living hell."
His life, he declared, was the latter.
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Alleged gunman Elliot Rodger, 22, lived a life of privilege