Parents Say Massacre Was Preventable

Five months later, Rodger began posting "hateful, angry, deeply misogynistic and racist material under his own name on various websites ... and his own YouTube channel, where he posted videos of himself ranting in angry and threatening ways," according to the complaint.

The roommates' parents say these diatribes were easy to find on Google using a search of Rodger's name.

A few months later, he attended a party where he tried to push three girls off a ledge because he thought they had snubbed him. Several male students intervened and pushed Rodger off the ledge instead, and he broke his ankle. When he got back home, he told a neighbor "I'm gonna kill all those motherf***kers and kill myself," according to the complaint. (Asterisks in original.)

Sheriffs deputies followed up on the incident and interviewed several people. Though the deputies were told that Rodger had started the fight and "targeted women," the officers let the matter drop, the complaint states.

Rodger returned to Capri Apartments after ankle surgery and recuperation at his parents' house, and Capri assigned James Hong and David Wang as his roommates despite knowing about his "bizarre behavior" and the threat he posed to their safety, the young men's parents say.

"Capri failed to conduct any kind of reasonable background check or reasonable investigation of Rodger's online postings to ensure that he was an appropriate and safe roommate before assigning him to Hong and Wang. Finally, Capri failed to warn Hong and Wang that Rodger had had serious conflicts with his previous roommates and was not only racist but also potentially violent and dangerous," the complaint states.

Soon after Hong and Wang moved in, Rodger started hiding their pots and pans because he hated the way their cooking smelled. When Hong took some of Rodger's candles to force Rodger to give back his property, Rodger called the Sheriff's Department and officers arrested Hong rather than Rodger, according to the complaint.

In April 2014, a mental health worker saw a new batch of racist, sexist videos on Rodger's YouTube channel and alerted the Sheriffs Department, which sent officers to his apartment for a "wellness check," according to the lawsuit.

But department personnel "recklessly" failed to watch the videos, read Rodger's online posts or do a background check on him before the wellness check, and the officers who spoke with him never asked to search his room, the complaint states.

"This failure on the part of the SBCSD emboldened Rodger and caused him to adapt and expand his plans of violence creating greater danger than existed previously," the complaint adds.

Rodger wrote in his manifesto that he was relieved the officers did not come inside because if they had searched his room, everything would have been over, according to the complaint.

None of the defendants replied to requests for comment Tuesday.

The parents seek compensatory and general damages for due process violations, negligence and "past, present and future psychological, emotional and physical pain, suffering, distress and injury."

They also want medical and other expenses. [prayer 2]

They are represented by Patrick McNicholas with McNicholas and McNicholas of Los Angeles and Todd Becker of Long Beach.

An investigative report released in February by the Santa Barbara County Sheriff's Department indicated that Rodger suffered from severe social anxiety all his life and was diagnosed with an autism spectrum disorder in 2007.

Though his anxiety and frustration toward young couples grew despite therapy and medication, he "was never hospitalized due to mental illness, or placed on a mental health hold (voluntary or involuntary)," the report states.

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