Memorials are scheduled in Los Angeles and Thousand Oaks today to honor victims of the shootings and stabbings in Isla Vista that left six people dead.
Fittingly, the vigils are taking place on Memorial Day.
The University of California, Los Angeles, and Westlake High School in Thousand Oaks planned to host memorials at 8 p.m., according to KTLA-5.
“Please join us in remembering the tragic loss that affected the lives of so many of our friends. As students at the University of California, we stand in support of those on our sister campus,” a UCLA Facebook event page stated.
Those who were planning to attend were asked to bring candles or lighters or to help the campus origami club make paper cranes as a gesture of peace, according to the Facebook page.
The memorial at Westlake High School was planned to honor shooting victim Veronika Weiss, who graduated from the school last year.
Federal agents searched the homes of the parents of Elliott Rodger in the San Fernando Valley on Sunday as new details emerged about a frantic effort by his mother and father to head off their son’s planned murderous rampage in Isla Vista.
Federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, along with investigators from the Santa Barbara County Sheriff’s Department, conducted searches at the father’s house in Woodland Hills and the mother’s house several miles away in West Hills, according to media reports.
According to CNN and the Los Angeles Times, Rodger’s mother saw the killer’s 140-page manifesto — against women in general and UCSB students in particular — at 9:11 Friday night, which turned out to be after three men had been stabbed to death but 20 minutes before three other people were shot dead by Rodger as he drove through Isla Vista. Another 13 people suffered gunshot wounds or were run over by Rodger during the rampage.
Both CNN and The Times reported that Rodger’s mother immediately went to YouTube, where she knew her son often posted videos.
The two then set off for Isla Vista in a search for their son. The sequence of events was provided to The Times and CNN by a friend of the Rodger family, a talent agent and media adviser named Simon Astaire.
While on the 101 Freeway, they heard about the shootings near UC Santa Barbara, Astaire told CNN and The Times.
