Sarahi Gonzalez* lost two friends that day—Katie Cooper and Veronika Weiss.

In May 2014, Elliot Rodger, a dropout from Santa Barbara City College went on a carefully planned-out rampage in Isla Vista, next to the University of California, Santa Barbara.

Rodger, 22, killed six UCSB students before turning the gun on himself.

Before the Isla Vista massacre, Rodger knocked on the door of the Alpha Phi Sorority house; but none of the residents answered. He got in his car and drove off.

As he was driving off, three sorority members from Tri Delta were walking across from the Alpha Phi house. Rodger rolled down his car window and shot Cooper, Weiss and survivor Bianca de Kock.

The three friends were walking together at the time they were all shot. Rodger continued shooting around Isla Vista, near the busy Isla Vista Market and 7-Eleven. Then he crashed his car in Del Playa two miles away and fired a bullet into his head.

“I was left in a state of shock. I called my parents to tell them that my sorority sisters had passed away and they wanted me home,” said Gonzalez, who was particularly close to Cooper.

Gonzalez was on campus when this occurred. Typically, she would bike down Trigo Road to Skyview Apartments, where she lived with two other roommates. Her apartment was within two minutes from UCSB. “My usual route through Trigo was closed,” she said.

Gonzalez felt something was off on her way to her apartment. “Before I got to my apartment the night before, there was a YouTube video going around Facebook and other social media platforms about Elliot Rodger posting his manifesto,” she said.

The next morning, Gonzalez checked her Facebook. As she scrolled through her feed, she noticed that Cooper’s brother had posted about his sister’s death.

Traumatized, Gonzalez took a year off from school.

"I just couldn’t be in Santa Barbara,” she said.

Emotional Blur

Gonzalez turned to painting to heal her emotional and mental wounds.

“I was just really depressed. Eventually, I did come back and managed to graduate. Then, I started painting. I turned my pain into purpose,” she said.

UCSB Police Sgt. Matt Bowman remembers hearing the police radio playing in the background and voices of different police officers were coming in and out.

“Our officers were some of the first to respond. We had a police officer have a young lady die in his arms that night," he said. "That was a horrific tragedy that the university police, even though not responsible primarily for the law enforcement services in Isla Vista were intimately familiar with from the second it kicked off.

“Other than that, I don’t really remember much about that night. It was sort of a blur, but we had a great team and support system before and after the incident, which helped us overcome challenges we faced before and after the tragic event,” Bowman said.

For many, police officers have the responsibility in maintaining a secure campus, however, police officers and any member who works on campus safety is constantly striving to make students feel safe in their environment.

Gonzalez believes the issue of gun violence is tied to mental health. “If Elliot Rodger had been seen, heard, appreciated, and loved, he potentially wouldn’t have done this," she said.

She said that people should look out for signs of mental illness and encourage individuals to believe others when they say they are hurting. “We have to be very diligent about hearing people.”

University Communication Methods and Alert Systems

Students who want to live in university housing are accountable to the university. The university, on the other hand, is not liable for students who choose to live in private apartments like those in Isla Vista.

“So those students who choose to live in University Housing have staff present 24/7. They’ve got good resources available, they’ve got professional staff, and student staff that are trained at a very high level,” Bowman said.

Environmental Health and Safety Emergency Preparedness Coordinator Taylor Lockmann, added, “We don’t deal with safety incidents that may occur on campus. We deal with the larger response and the university as a whole.”

Lockmann’s task is to use the emergency preparedness tool through the UC system, called UC Ready.

“UC Ready is a tool used to compile plans per department that helps each department be prepared in case of a disaster or an emergency. Each department is supposed to have their disaster plans in place. It’s an ongoing process.

“The plan is really an integrative process and it involves a lot of people, there’s not really one person in charge of the whole thing. We also have an emergency flipchart, which has all the scenarios you could think of and actions you might be able to take,” Lockmann said.

At UCSB, campus police are responsible for providing instruction, education and keeping the community informed about any incidents that might occur on campus.

“Our primary way to communicate with students is through the UCSB Alert system, which is a text-based and email-based system.

“You can login using your net ID and manipulate what phone it goes to and what information you’re receiving. Some people just choose to receive information that happens in Isla Vista, others just want to receive information on campus, and others want both. So you have the ability as the user to manipulate that,” Bowman said.

School Shootings in the United States

In the United States, mass shootings have become all-too-common events, as have school shootings.

The Virginia Tech massacre was the deadliest school shooting in U.S. history, with 33 people killed and 23 injured. The Sandy Hook Elementary School massacre in Newtown, Connecticut, was the next deadliest school shooting with 27 fatalities, according to Statista Research Department.

Isla Vista Resiliency

Although UCSB has dealt with unexpected events such as the 2014 rampage and the 2017 Thomas Fire, UCSB’s emergency response team and police officers continue to work together to maintain a strong and safe community for students.

The first few months of the shooting were tough for Gonzalez and many of her peers. Gonzalez said she didn’t go anywhere near the Alpha Phi house. “I avoided it because it was just traumatic for me,” she said.

Although she was going through a lot of emotions, Gonzalez felt supported by her community. “Everybody came together during the time of the shooting. Isla Vista was just united. And that to me was so beautiful to see that because there was no discrimination of any kind. It was just people together,” she said.

Lockmann also said the key to overcoming incidents and disasters is to have a good team.

“Getting to know people in your community before the disaster happens is important, you don’t want to have to be rushing and figuring out something. Familiarity is critical to these responses,” she said.

The sense of familiarity and unity has kept Gonzalez emotionally afloat.

“In terms of people who are struggling with anything, just know that it’s okay to be broken and it’s OK to be depressed and all these things. But, know that it doesn’t last. So, turn your pain into purpose and really just know that it gets better,” she said.

*not related to the writer, Lilian Gonzalez