Serious questions about Elliott Rodgers

[Justice]

1. He dropped out of school. Did his parents know this? They must have been paying for his apartment/living expenses. His mother bought him a $40,000 car. Didn't they wonder what he was doing if not going to college? He said he saved $5000 for the ammo and of course to buy the guns. Where did he get all the money?

2. July 2013 - Unhappy at a party, he tried to push people over 10-foot ledge. They pushed back and he ended up on the street and broke his ankle. He lost his "Gucci" sunglasses and drunkenly went to look for them, and went to the wrong place and got beat up. He made up a story to police, told them he was attacked. Apparently, the whole thing went away. Did police investigate? How did that happen?

3. The recent wellness check. Did the police know about the videos (that is why mom called therapists who called SB services and they called police. Did they watch the videos? When doing a wellness check, can police check to see if person has registered guns? Did they check in this case? How did police communicate results of visits. Was there a failure of communication? His writing said SEVEN police officers knocked on his door - they sent SEVEN officers but yet they did not check to see if he owned guns? The SEVEN officers did not speak to the roommates? A mother of one roommate said her son wanted to move out because of Rodger's behavior.

4. Did police think it was strange he pursued the petty theft case against a roommate?

5. What do therapists say now? Where there signs they missed? Do therapists find out about police interactions or only if patient tells them?

[GeorgeGist]

1. As Plumber Joe said so eloquently ...

2nd Amendment trumps everything, including your right to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.

[SoCalNative]

2. According to his written manifesto

He said he saved $5000 for the ammo and of course to buy the guns. Where did he get all the money?

both of his grandmothers regularly sent him money for living expenses, which he saved up and used to buy his guns, expensive clothing, etc.

2. July 2013 - Unhappy at a party, he tried to push people over 10-foot ledge. They pushed back and he ended up on the street and broke his ankle. He lost his "Gucci" sunglasses and drunkenly went to look for them, and went to the wrong place and got beat up. He made up a story to police, told them he was attacked. Apparently, the whole thing went away. Did police investigate? How did that happen?

Yes, the police investigated. But he told one story on the group involved told another. The police decided it was a he said/they said scenario so they declined to investigate further. This is also in his written manifesto.

[YarnAddict]

3. Have you read the manifesto?

It actually does answer some of your questions.

1-No, his parents didn't know that he wasn't in school. In fact, he would sign up for classes, then immediately drop them. The $5000 was saved from gifts given him by indulgent relatives. He was given $500/month "spending money," while his parents paid, tuition, rent, etc. Also--he probably got tuition refunds when he dropped classes before the deadline.

2-The police investigated the beating, but there were conflicting stories. His was made up, and probably appeared to be. IOW, the officers took the word of the other parties, who most likely were telling the truth.

3-This is probably the one chance to have averted this whole thing--but, notice, his mother called the therapist, who called SB services, who called the police. If she was concerned about the video, that info may have been lost somewhere along this chain. Even if they had checked to see if he owned guns, so what? It was his legal right. If questioned about it, he could always say he was planning to take up target shooting, or something. I don't know if they could even have legally entered his apartment without a warrent. He mentioned in the manifesto that he was a good liar. Probably made his mother seem like she was just overprotective.

4-Even if police thought it was strange to pursue such a minor petty theft case, so what? That alone really isn't necessarily a sign of trouble.

5--This is something we will undoubtedly be finding more out about in the near future.

[SoCalNative]

4. Also

His psychiatrist prescribed medication for him, which he decided wasn't right for him and refused to take.

[Lars39]

5. I want to know why the therapist didn't call police.

Professional obligation, etc., should have kicked in. Instead the therapist called the parent of an *adult*. Would the alarm have sounded louder from a therapist rather than a parent? Maybe. We'll never know.

[etherealtruth]

9. I could be wrong (probably am)

... but I thought the therapist did contact the police ... and then contacted the parents

[Lars39]

10. Ah, ok.

Muddled situation.

[Jamastiene]

12. The therapist he sent his manifesto to DID call the police.

And called the mother too. The mother called his father. They both went looking for him instead of calling police themselves. The therapist was the one who called the police.

[snooper2]

6. I believe there are actual detectives on the case right now

I may be mistaken...

If not we better get on this!

[SummerSnow]

7. I read that when the police interviewed him regarding

an incident, they didn't pursue it cause he was polite and well mannered. I'm going to find the link.

[etherealtruth]

8. First the police are trained in law enforcement that is their job ... Law enforcment

It appears that the mental health professionals and his parents knew he was very ill ... since the guy was over 18 the parents had very little input and or influence on their son's treatment. Involuntary commitment is difficult (bizarre behavior is not one of the criteria).

when the police arrived at the kid's apartment, I am going to assume he did not allow them in and invite them to search (at that point he had broken no laws) ... Again they are the police they have not received years of education and training in mental illness (even if they had, what could they have done?)

I am sure the police find the behavior of a lot of folk "strange" ... petty and or mean spirited

[H2O Man]

11. In many states,

police receive training on mental health/ community crises issues, because although being mentally ill isn't illegal, the system often requires a legal procedure for the "pick ups" that can lead to evaluations and non-voluntary confinements. (In NYS, all police -- municapal, county, and state -- are required to have such trainings. They are co-sponsored by the state department of criminal justice and office of mental health. I provided these trainings in central NY for many years.)

[Jamastiene]

13. 1. No, his parents did not know.

He made it appear he was still going to classes and purposely hid the fact that he cancelled most of his classes because he could not stand to be in the same classroom as any couples or women he thought were nice looking. His parents gave him the money, specifically, his mother, who paid for his rent.

2. Nothing came of it. He started trying to push several women an later some of the men off the ledge. Finally, one of the guys pushed him off the ledge. He broke his ankle and that changed his original planned date for his killing spree. He originally planned to do it on Halloween, because he hated Halloween, but knew there would be too many police around. He had pushed it off to a regular weekend when parties would be happening but less police would be around. Once he broke his ankle, he had to push it off again.

3. I don't know what the police did and did not know, but it's eerie how they made the same kind of fatal (for others) that police in the Jefferey Dahmer incident where a young boy escaped him and they sent the boy back for Dahmer to finish killing him. These police, if they did know of the video, should have done the background check and searched his place. Maybe they did not know, but I do not know the answer to that for sure.

4. I don't know that.

5. I'm not sure if his problem was a mental illness or not. I tend to think he had many symptoms of being psychotic. He dreamed of putting women in concentration camps and personally watching them starve to death. That is above and beyond any simple mental illness. Sounds more like something the Nazis would have done, or Cheney. I know he did go to therapists, but he did not mention much about them except he believed they were not helping him and refused to take one medicine because he thought he didn't need it. There were many signs that many different people had to have seen, because he mentioned a friend from early childhood that stopped being friends with him and refused to be around him any more because he talked about some of his fascist and sadistic dreams of his own government if he ever came into power. That friend knew he wanted to do sick, twisted things to women and refused to speak to him any more after putting up with it for a while.

His family knew he was obsessed with not losing his virginity. They also knew he did not want to be around girls at all even when he was younger. They just let him go to the all boys' school he wanted to go to, then let him take a semi home schooling high school curriculum. He would only have to go a couple hours to the actual school and only really interacted with his teachers for high school. His stepmother, who he despised, made him go out and socialize with other kids in the neighborhood and even THAT pissed him off. He said she embarrassed him by sending him to his room in front of one of his friends for one of his outbursts of rage. He acted like she had used some cruel and unusual punishment on him for simply sending him to his room for his rage. His family definitely knew he had major problems and was extremely obsessed with sex and hated women.

There were plenty of warning signs that he was at the very least dangerous to others. Whether or not he had any named mental illness, I do not know. No one who actually knows has said what mental illness he might or might not have had. So far, that is all speculation.