A gunman who police say killed six people in a drive-by shooting in a University of California college town was tentatively identified on Saturday as Elliot Rodger, according to the Associated Press.
Rodger was found dead in a crashed car following the rampage on Friday night, the AP reported. He was the son of Peter Rodger, an assistant director on the 2012 movie "The Hunger Games."
The Hollywood director believes his son was the lone gunman who went on the shooting weeks after the family had called police about disturbing YouTube videos he had posted, according to Alan Shifman, Rodgers family lawyer, according to the AP.
"The Rodger family offers their deepest compassion and sympathy to the families involved in this terrible tragedy. We are experiencing the most inconceivable pain, and our hearts go out to everybody involved," Shifman said, the AP reported. Authorities have not confirmed the identity of the shooter.
The shootings started around 9:30 p.m. in Isla Vista, a roughly half-square mile community next to UC Santa Barbara's campus and picturesque beachside cliffs, according to the AP. The gunman got into two gun battles before crashing his black BMW into a parked car, but it wasn't immediately clear whether he was killed by gunfire or if he committed suicide.
A visibly shaken student told KEYT-TV that she was approached by the driver of a black BMW who flashed a handgun and asked "Hey, what's up?" The student, who didn't provide her full name, said she thought he was carrying an airsoft gun and kept walking, the AP reported. She said seconds later, she felt something buzz by her head and quickly realized they were bullets.
In the YouTube video, posted Friday, the man sits in a car and looks at the camera, laughing often, and says he is going to take his revenge against humanity, according to the AP. He describes loneliness and frustration because "girls have never been attracted to me," and says, at age 22, he is still a virgin.
The video, which is almost seven minutes long, appears scripted, the AP reported. The identity of the person in the video could not be independently confirmed.
