Redirecting the Pathway

Using Multidisciplinary Threat Assessments to Prevent Targeted Violence

On the evening of May 23, 2014, in the California campus community of Isla Vista, a student who was socially isolated and had long stopped attending classes at Santa Barbara City College, killed six people and injured fourteen others in a rampage attack using knives, firearms, and his vehicle. He intended to kill as many young women as he could who belonged to one of the sororities at the University of California at Santa Barbara. His motive was to punish “hot girls” who symbolically had rejected him and the young men with whom they socialized. He fumed that he was still a virgin.