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Isla Vista shootings: Killing rampage recalls 2001 ‘angel of death’

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People look through a window pocked with bullet holes at the IV Deli Mart in Isla Vista, near UC Santa Barbara.   (Al Seib / Los Angeles Times)
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Seen through a bullet hole, IV Deli Mart owner Michael Hassan cleans up his store near UC Santa Barbara. A gunman fatally shot someone there.  (Irfan Khan / Los Angeles Times)
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Students listen to a memorial service at UCSB for six students slain Friday in Isla Vista.   (Wally Skalij / Los Angeles Times)
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Students hug during a memorial service at UCSB for six students slain Friday in Isla Vista.   (Wally Skalij / Los Angeles Times)
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Students listen to a memorial service at UCSB for six students slain Friday in Isla Vista.   (Wally Skalij / Los Angeles Times)
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UC Santa Barbara student Shoshana Cohen, 20, writes a chalk message in the street in front of the I.V. Deli Mart in Isla Vista, where one of last week’s rampage victims was gunned down.  (Brian van der Brug / Los Angeles Times)
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A passersby is reflected in the window of the I.V. Deli Mart in Isla Vista, where one of the victims in last week’s rampage was gunned down.  (Brian van der Brug / Los Angeles Times)
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UCSB student Jessica Enriquez stands quietly at a memorial for those killed by Elliot Rodger’s rampage at the Associated Students Pardall Center in Isla Vista.   (Brian van der Brug / Los Angeles Times)
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UCSB student Danielle Burbank, right, pets Mason, a yellow Labrador taking part in dog therapy in Isla Vista.   (Brian van der Brug / Los Angeles Times)
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UCSB student Forrest Liu, 20, writes out his thoughts at a memorial for those killed at the Associated Students Pardall Center.  (Brian van der Brug / Los Angeles Times)
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Students gather near Royce Hall at UCLA to pay tribute to the Isla Vista victims during a candlelight vigil Monday.   (Wally Skalij / Los Angeles Times)
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Students observe a moment of silence near Royce Hall at UCLA during a tribute to the Isla Vista victims.   (Wally Skalij / Los Angeles Times)
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Pastor Michael Faccuito of Santa Barbara prays in front of the I.V. Deli Mart in Isla Vista.   (Francine Orr / Los Angeles Times)
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People stand with signs reading “News Crew Go Home” in front of the I.V. Deli Mart in Isla Vista.   (Francine Orr / Los Angeles Times)
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UC Santa Barbara student Ariana Richmond, 20, writes on the sidewalk in front of the apartment where Elliot Rodger lived and allegedly stabbed three victims to death in Isla Vista, Calif.   (Francine Orr / Los Angeles Times)
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UCSB student Hanna Korynta, 20, in front of the apartment where Elliot Rodger lived and allegedly stabbed three men to death in Isla Vista, Calif., on Friday. She has come to bring flowers and pay her respects. Korynta and her boyfriend heard gunfire after returning from dinner the night of the stabbings and shootings but they were not injured.   (Francine Orr / Los Angeles Times)
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Friends and mourners have placed flowers and notes outside the apartment where Elliot Rodger lived and allegedly stabbed three victims to death in Isla Vista, Calif. The note is presumably written for George Chen, 19, a victim of the stabbings who attended nearby UC Santa Barbara.  (Francine Orr / Los Angeles Times)
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Flowers have been placed outside the apartment where Elliot Rodger lived and allegedly stabbed three victims to death in Isla Vista, Calif., near UC Santa Barbara.  (Francine Orr / Los Angeles Times)
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A candlelight vigil was held on Pardall Road near the scene of one of the fatal shootings in Isla Vista on Friday night.  (Lawrence K. Ho / Los Angeles Times)
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A congregant reacts during Mass at St. Mark’s University Parish in honor of the UC Santa Barbara victims.   (Lawrence K. Ho / Los Angeles Times)
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Congregants embrace during Mass at St. Mark’s University Parish in Isla Vista to remember the victims of Friday night’s violent rampage that left seven dead.   (Lawrence K. Ho / Los Angeles Times)
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Well-wishers arriving to pay respects at the home of UC Santa Barbara student Katherine Cooper, who was killed in the Isla Vista attack, hug outside her family’s home in Chino Hills.  (Bob Chamberlin / Los Angeles Times)
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Friends hold hands to pray and remember shooting victims Veronika Weiss of Thousand Oaks and Katie Cooper of Chino Hills outside the Alpha Phi sorority house where they were gunned down Friday during a rampage in Isla Vista.  (Gina Ferazzi / Los Angeles Times)
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UCSB student Natasha Monsauret brings two red roses to place at the memorial in front of the I.V. Deli Mart in Isla Vista.   (Gina Ferazzi / Los Angeles Times)
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Friends hold hands to pray and remember shooting victims Veronika Weiss of Thousand Oaks and Katie Cooper of Chino Hills outside the Alpha Phi sorority house.   (Gina Ferazzi / Los Angeles Times)
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A large crowd gathers to pray and remember shooting victims Veronika Weiss and Katie Cooper outside the Alpha Phi sorority house in Isla Vista.   (Gina Ferazzi / Los Angeles Times)
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Jose Cardoso, 50, cries and prays next to flowers in front of the Alpha Phi sorority house, which was targeted in the rampage. He said he has a local printing shop and has done a lot of work for the fraternities and sororities. He said he thinks of the students as his own children.   (Francine Orr / Los Angeles Times)
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A woman adds flowers to a memorial in front of the Alpha Phi sorority house in Isla Vista.   (Francine Orr / Los Angeles Times)
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Knitted peace symbols hang from a tree across the street from of the I.V. Deli Mart in Isla Vista, a scene of part of the violent rampage Friday night.   (Francine Orr / Los Angeles Times)
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A young man places flowers in front of the I.V. Deli Mart in Isla Vista.   (Francine Orr / Los Angeles Times)
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Robert McHalffey, 29, reacts after placing flowers in front of the I.V. Deli Mart.   (Francine Orr / Los Angeles Times)
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Flowers placed at the I.V. Deli in Isla Vista on May 25, 2014, form a part of a makeshift memorial to victims of a shooting rampage.

  (Francine Orr / Los Angeles Times)
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A passerby pays his respects at a makeshift memorial in front of the IV Deli Mart.  (Chris Carlson / Associated Press)
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Two men kneel at a makeshift memorial in Isla Vista.  (Robyn Beck / AFP/Getty Images)
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Students gathered on the UC Santa Barbara campus to remember those killed Friday night during a rampage in Isla Vista. Hundreds turned out for the event.   (Michael Robinson Chavez / Los Angeles Times)
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Hundreds turned out Saturday for a vigil at UC Santa Barbara to remember the victims killed in Friday’s rampage.  (Michael Robinson Chavez / Los Angeles Times)
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Caitlyn Dixon distributes roses in Isla Vista on May 24, the day after a shooting rampage left six people and the gunman dead.   (Irfan Khan / Los Angeles Times)
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Lyssa Hopper is comforted outside the I.V. Deli Mart in Isla Vista. Hopper was in the store Friday night when the shooting began.  (Anne Cusack / Los Angeles Times)
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The gunman’s car is cordoned off in Isla Vista, where seven people, including the attacker, were killed. He was found slumped in the BMW, three handguns and more than 400 rounds of ammunition at his side.  (Irfan Khan / Los Angeles Times)
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Alan Shifman, an attorney representing Elliot Rodger’s family, speaks to reporters outside the family’s Woodland Hills home on May 24.   (Michael Robinson Chavez / Los Angeles Times)
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Hannah Maschwitz, right, gets a hug from her boyfriend, fellow UC Santa Barbara senior Tyler Mullen, as the two reunite the morning after the shootings.  (Al Seib / Los Angeles Times)
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A memorial outside the IV Deli Mart in Isla Vista where one man was killed in the shooting rampage.  (Anne Cusack / Los Angeles Times)
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An investigator from the California Department of Justice Crime Lab collects evidence on Sabado Tarde Road on May 24 after the shooting rampage in Isla Vista.   (Al Seib / Los Angeles Times)
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A street in Isla Vista where the car driven by the gunman crashed.   (Irfan Khan / Los Angeles Times)
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Santa Barbara County Sheriff investigators check the suspect’s black BMW. In Isla Vista, seven people were killed and seven people wounded in a shooting rampage Friday night in the college town near UC Santa Barbara.  (Irfan Khan / Los Angeles Times)
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A black BMW with a shattered windshield is at the scene in Isla Vista.  (Irfan Khan / Los Angeles Times)
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A black BMW with a shattered windshield is at the scene in Isla Vista.  (Irfan Khan / Los Angeles Times)
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Trigo Road near a 7-Eleven where a person was shot Friday night in an Isla Vista, Calif.  (Al Seib / Los Angeles Times)
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Officials investigate a scene near the school campus after the series of shootings.  (Adolfo Flores / Los Angeles Times)
By Veronica Rocha
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The killing rampage that left seven dead and 13 injured in Isla Vista this weekend isn’t the first tragedy to hit the coastal community near UC Santa Barbara.

The Isla Vista attacks echo a Feb. 23, 2001, incident in which four pedestrians were run down and killed by David Attias, then a freshman at UC Santa Barbara.

Attias drove his Saab at 60 mph into a large crowd in Isla Vista, killing Nicholas Shaw Bourdakis, Christopher Divis, both 20, Ruth Levy, 20, and 27-year-old Ellie Israel. Another victim, Albert Levy, was permanently injured.

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After plowing through the crowd, Attias jumped on the car, held both arms in a boxing stance and declared, “I’m the angel of death.”

He was immediately arrested and charged with murder.

A jury, however, declared him insane in 2002, and he was committed to Patton State Hospital.

In 2012, a Santa Barbara judge allowed Attias to be released to a less restrictive outpatient program after finding that he was not “clearly not the same vacant, troubled and confused” man.

According to Santa Barbara authorities Friday night, Elliot Rodger fatally stabbed three people in his apartment and shot three others to death while driving through the streets of Isla Vista. All of the victims were UC Santa Barbara students.

Rodger sped through the community spraying gunfire at deputies and pedestrians, while plowing into others. After crashing his car, deputies discovered he died from an apparent self-inflicted gunshot wound to the head.

The similarities, however, between Attias and Rodger are hard to miss.

Both had fathers in the entertainment business.

Attias’ father, Daniel Attias, is a television director who worked on well-known shows such as “The Sopranos” and “True Blood.” Rodger’s father, Peter Rodger, worked as an assistant director on the 2012 film “The Hunger Games.”

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Their parents tried to seek help for their sons.

David Attias’ father testified that he tried to persuade his son to take his medication, which he stopped doing when he began attending UC Santa Barbara. He reportedly suffered from mental illness and had been taking numerous medications to control his impulsive behavior.

Rodger’s parents had warned authorities about their son’s behavior in April, prompting deputies to go to his home to check on his welfare. He was also seeing a therapist, a family friend told The Times.

Rodger and the younger Attias had difficulties making friends and were frustrated about their sex lives.

“If only one pretty girl had shown some form of attraction to me, the Day of Retribution would never happen,” Rodger wrote in a rambling 137-page screed. “I’d never even consider it. The Day of Retribution is mainly my war against women for rejecting me and depriving me of sex and love.”

Both thought they were superior people and believed they were saving humanity with their deeds.

While Attias’ called himself an “angel of death,” Rodger’s described himself as a God in his screed.

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“I will purify the world of everything that is wrong with it,” Rodger wrote. “On the Day of Retribution, I will truly be a powerful god, punishing everyone I deem to be impure and depraved.”

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California
Veronica Rocha

Veronica Rocha worked on the Metro desk and at L.A. Now covering breaking news in California. She joined the Los Angeles Times in 2014 and left in 2017.

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