Parents of UCSB Victims Speak Out

The families of three victims stabbed to death by UCSB gunman Elliot Rodger before he gunned down three others and shot himself told The Washington Post this week that U.S. health and legal systems value the rights of the mentally ill over those who become their victims. “The system is clearly broken. It should have protected our sons, who were so innocent and trusting,” said Henry Hong, the father of Cheng Yuan “James” Hong, one of the victims. The parents are also angry at what they see as a series of missed opportunities by authorities to intervene and a lack of information released to them by police. A call from a concerned county mental health worker prompted police to meet with Rodger in the weeks before the shooting, when they concluded after a ten-minute meeting that he was not an immediate threat to himself or others.