<b>MEMORIAL OF MANY: </b> More than 20,000 people attended Tuesday’s memorial service at UCSB’s Harder Stadium, from Isla Vista residents and UCSB students to the broader Santa Barbara population and dignitaries from around California. 
Paul Wellman

United, even if strangers, by the black ribbons pinned to their UCSB T-shirts and hoodies, they made their way into Harder Stadium on Tuesday afternoon until its 17,000 bleacher seats filled. They then took to the 1,800 chairs on the field, and when those filled up, they sat down on the grass. The 20,000-person crowd had quadrupled in size from three nights prior, when thousands held candles as they silently marched from Storke Plaza to Anisq’Oyo’ Park in Isla Vista and provided each other with solace in the form of stories and solidarity.

The UCSB students and the greater Isla Vista community were just days removed from the kind of atrocity that hurts badly enough when it happens somewhere else but produces a whole new pain when it happens in the idyllic streets of your home. But even in the face of such horror ​— ​six of their friends and classmates killed ​— ​the UCSB students sought comfort in each other and in their community, inspiring hashtags like #ivstrong and #gauchostrong and promising to be there for each other in the difficult times ahead.

Santa Barbara has been in mourning since, with the region’s residents and elected representatives joining in the students’ grief. Other University of California campuses have shown their support, organizing vigils and sending their counselors to console the UCSB students. And on Tuesday, the students continued to be there for each other, hugging, crying, and, at one point, even laughing together as they looked back on the last five days and ahead to the future.

On the night of Friday, May 23, Isla Vista resident Elliot Rodger, 22, began a rampage on the college town’s streets, shooting three young people dead after stabbing three others to death in his apartment. He then killed himself, ending what he said in his videos and writings was a life of loneliness brought about by women’s rejections. Thirteen others were injured ​— ​all are expected to make full recoveries ​— either by bullets or trauma from Rodger’s car (the cause of one injury is still unclear). His public massacre lasted just 10 minutes but took away the lifetimes of Katie Cooper, 22; Veronika Weiss, 19; Christopher Michaels-Martinez, 20; Cheng Yuan “James” Hong, 20; George Chen, 19; and Weihan “David” Wang, 20.

The question of why might not ever have an answer, many said on Tuesday. But questions about treatment of mental illness (or lack thereof), of gun control (spearheaded by Michaels-Martinez’s father), and of how men view women (noted on social media by #YesAllWomen) have since proved to be areas worth exploring. Also discussed by students has been the national media’s role in their tragedy, with students protesting the presence of broadcast vans on every Isla Vista curb.

Though reeling, Isla Vistans are very vocal in their gratitude to the authorities who helped prevent the rampage from worsening; they adorned a “Thank You” banner on the outside wall of the Foot Patrol’s headquarters, which continues to pick up new signatures of support. They have thanked the paramedics for responding rapidly, the doctors for saving the 13 injured, and the counselors for being there for them now and in the weeks to come. And if there was any inkling that Isla Vista, making headlines in recent months for gang rapes and a Deltopia riot, was a community divided, the candlelit vigil the students organized the day after ​— ​where they told equally humorous and heartbreaking tales of their departed friends ​— ​dismissed that notion entirely.

<b>#NOTONEMORE: </b> Richard Martinez, father of shooting victim Christopher Ross Michaels-Martinez, leads the Harder Stadium crowd in chants of “Not One More,” a call for stricter gun-control policies. 
Paul Wellman

So did Tuesday’s memorial, with some help from Michaels-Martinez’s dad, Richard Martinez. He started with a story about how when Chris was 8 years old, he wanted to play football. Richard was hesitant, he said, but Chris did it anyway. At a scrimmage his dad went to with him, Chris got knocked over by a fullback, Richard remembered, recalling how he thought, “Oh my God, he must be hurt.” But to his father’s surprise, Chris “hopped back up” and “walked determinedly” back to the game. “That’s the kind of kid Chris was,” Richard said.

Diverging in his story, temporarily, Richard, whose grief has joined anger at the National Rifle Association and the politicians who support it, roused the crowd from their sorrow. He got them to stand up and chant, “Not one more!” as a call to end gun violence (and a now-popular hashtag itself on social media, with thousands of posts in minutes). He even got them to laugh, admitting he didn’t know what a hashtag was but joking that they don’t know what postcards are. But what Richard did know was a story about football and what Chris’s actions in a scrimmage could teach the students, faculty, and Isla Vista community about life. “Like Christopher that day,” his dad said, “I want you to get back up and walk determinedly forward.”

In the following pages, you’ll find complete coverage of the tragedy and its aftermath from The Santa Barbara Independent’s news team ​— ​many of us Gauchos ourselves ​— ​as we and the rest of Santa Barbara try to understand what happened … and what happens next.

<b>#IVSTRONG: </b> Thousands of students walked to UCSB’s Storke Plaza on Saturday night for an impromptu vigil, followed by a silent walk back to Anisq’Oyo’ Park in Isla Vista.
Paul Wellman

#IVSTRONG: Get & Give Support

There are many support services available for those seeking guidance in how to deal with the Isla Vista shooting tragedy, as well as ways to show support. Here is a short list:

UCSB’s 24/7 Hotline: Call 893-4411 seven days a week, 24 hours a day.

SBCC Student Health Services: Open to students May 29, 8 a.m.-4 p.m., and May 30, 8 a.m.-1 p.m.

Hospice of Santa Barbara: Free bereavement support and counseling services; call 563-8820 or see hospiceofsantabarbara.org.

Santa Barbara Response Network: Call 699-5608 or email sbrncommand@gmail.com.

Victims of Isla Vista Fund: Donations taken at any Heritage Oaks Bank (17 locations on Central Coast, including 1035 State St. in Santa Barbara) or by visiting sbfoundation.org.

Isla Vista United: Isla Vista Screen Printing donating net proceeds to the fund. See uniteislavista.com.

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