Just short of a year after the deadly Isla Vista shooting, the University of California - Santa Barbara (UCSB) community suffered another violent incident.
According to the Los Angeles Times, two suspects were arrested Tuesday for shooting and injuring two UCSB students at their apartment. Police said James Joshua Taylor, 22, and Jose Guadalupe Gutierrez, 19, approached two students at an Isla Vista apartment building around 7:15 p.m. Monday before robbing and shooting them.
Police arrested Taylor at the scene as he was trying to flee, but Gutierrez was able to get away after the shooting. He reportedly went to a hospital to claim he was in a car accident and therefore give himself an alibi.
Both men sustained injuries, the Times reported, but will be taken into police custody once they are medically cleared.
A third victim was not shot, but apparently assaulted, and all three were hospitalized with injuries not believed to be life threatening, the Associated Press reported. Authorities said this was likely a domestic dispute and not in any way related to the tragic events that transpired in Isla Vista a year ago.
On May 24, 2014, Elliot Rodger stabbed and killed three people in his apartment before driving to UCSB's campus and opening fire from his car, killing two more students and a nearby deli employee. He took his own life before police could apprehend him.
The school had multiple events in light of the first anniversary of the incident. UCSB announced "a community planting, a memorial lighting installation, a candlelight vigil, a public discussion and a paddle-out" for the coming weeks.
"The first-year anniversary of a tragedy is so important as a time to reflect on what happened," Kum-Kum Bhavnani, a professor of sociology at UCSB and chair of the Academic Senate, said in the school's release. "These events are a means of honoring the people who lost their lives and of respecting those who were injured. And through that honoring and respect, I think, as a campus, we will heal more."
