Lessons From a Mass Shooter’s Mother
Reveal
The Center for Investigative Reporting and PRX
4.7 • 8K Ratings
🗓️ 18 May 2024
⏱️ 53 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
In 2014, in the college town of Isla Vista, California, a 22-year-old man murdered six people and injured 14 others before killing himself. The killer didn’t suddenly “snap” one day out of the blue; he planned the attack and spiraled into crisis in the years leading up to it.
The horrific incident left violence prevention experts wondering: What were the missed warning signs?
One person who held some of the answers was the killer’s mother, Chin Rodger. She has long avoided the media, fearing that speaking publicly would only hurt the victims’ families more. But 10 years later, she’s come to see a greater purpose – that sharing what she knows about her son’s behavior before the attack could help others identify similar warning signs and prevent further violence.
By confronting and sharing the painful memories and evidence her son, Elliot, left behind, Rodger has contributed to the field of threat assessment – teams of people who specialize in collecting information on possible threats, connecting the dots and intervening before tragedy strikes. This week on Reveal, Rodger talks publicly for the first time with Mother Jones reporter Mark Follman.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | I'm here to tell you about a great mystery. |
| 0:04.0 | That mystery is you. |
| 0:07.3 | As the host of a podcast called Hidden Brain, |
| 0:10.1 | I explore big questions about what it means to be human. |
| 0:14.0 | Questions like, where do our emotions come from? |
| 0:17.0 | Why do so many of us feel overwhelmed by modern life? |
| 0:21.0 | How can we better understand the people around us? Discover your hidden brain. |
| 0:27.0 | Find us wherever you get your podcasts. From the Center for Investigative Reporting and PRX, this is revealed. |
| 0:39.8 | I'm Al Letson. It's late in the day, April 2014, when a call comes into the Santa Barbara |
| 0:47.6 | County Mental Health Crisis Hotline, a worried mom hasn't heard from her son in days and she's just found a troubling video he posted online. |
| 0:58.0 | The dispatcher alerts the sheriff's office and deputies go out to his apartment for a welfare check. |
| 1:04.0 | When the young man answers the door, he's calm and courteous. |
| 1:07.0 | He says his mom is overreacting and he's fine. |
| 1:11.0 | They found him to be polite. |
| 1:13.2 | The officer had him call me on his phone to let me know that he was okay. |
| 1:19.6 | He passed the phone to one of the officers who asked him why did I call the police? Your son is the |
| 1:25.0 | phone to one of the offices who asked him why did I call the police your son is fine. |
| 1:26.0 | The deputies determine that he looks and sounds okay. |
| 1:30.0 | There are no signs he's in danger, so they leave. |
| 1:33.2 | But they had no idea he had weapons and |
| 1:35.6 | ammo stockpiled in his room. |
| 1:39.7 | Just over three weeks later, |
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