BY GLENN FREEMAN
Katherine Cooper
Chino Hills – Known as Katie to her friends, Chino Hills resident Katherine Cooper was fondly remembered by those who knew her – and many who didn’t – in the days following the tragic shooting rampage near UC Santa Barbara.
“A lot of us remember her as someone that was very caring, very kind,” Brandon Andre told KABC-TV. “She was very strong in her personality … Everywhere she went, she left an impression. People just loved her …,” said Andre, who was Cooper’s friend and one-time prom date.
Cooper, 22, was one of six UCSB students killed during the April 23 incident in Isla Vista, the Santa Barbara community of UCSB, where Cooper was about to graduate with a degree in History.
According to news reports, Cooper was standing with a small group outside the Alpha Phi sorority house around 9:30 p.m. when 22-year old Elliot Rodger approached the front door, pounding on it to gain entrance. When the door was not answered, Rodger reportedly walked over to Cooper’s group and opened fire, killing Cooper and fellow Delta Delta Delta sorority sister, 19-year old Veronika Weiss of Westlake Village, Calif. A third girl was also injured.
Friends and neighbors of Cooper remember her as a very friendly and fun-loving girl. Neighbor Sandra Betancourt told The Press-Enterprise that Cooper was “so pretty, but not conceited,” referring to the young woman’s personality. Betancourt recalled Cooper often playing with neighborhood kids and walking her dogs.
The family reportedly moved into the quiet Chino Hills cul-de-sac near Ruben S. Ayala High School about 17 years ago, where Cooper attended Rolling Ridge Elementary School, Canyon Hills Junior High School and later graduated from Ayala High School in 2010 before heading to UCSB.
Allen Borcherding, a 7th Grade Science teacher at Canyon Hills Junior High School in Chino Hills, said she was “more than an excellent student” in his class. “She was one of 2,500 students I’ve taught over the years, but Katie was a standout,” Borcherding said to The Associated Press.
Reports about the shooter said he was a young man with an apparent hatred toward girls and women, whom he said had rejected him. Videos posted by the suspect on YouTube seem to confirm this.
In a transcript reported by the Los Angeles Times of one video, titled “Elliot Rodger’s Retribution,” Rodger recounts his rejection by women, saying “you girls have never been attracted to me. I don’t know why you girls aren’t attracted to me but I will punish you all for it. It’s an injustice, a crime …” Rodger continues saying that he’s “still a virgin, never even kissed a girl” and that “college is the time when everyone experiences those things such as sex and fun and pleasure. In those years I’ve had to rot in loneliness, it’s not fair.”
Later in the same video, Rodger turns his anger toward sorority girls, whom he called “spoiled” and “stuck-up.”
“On the day of retribution, I am going to enter the hottest sorority house at UCSB and I will slaughter every single spoiled, stuck-up, blonde I see inside there,” Rodger states in the video. “All those girls I’ve desired so much. They have all rejected me and looked down on me as an inferior man if I ever made a sexual advance toward them, while they throw themselves at these obnoxious brutes.”
After the sorority shootings, the suspect reportedly drove away in his BMW where he continued firing, injuring some and killing Christopher Michaels-Martinez, 20, who was inside the I.V. Deli. Prior to the shootings, Rodger had stabbed his two roommates, George Chen, 19, and Cheng Yuan “James” Hong, 20, and their friend, Weihan “David” Wang, 20, in the apartment they shared. Following his rampage, authorities say Rodger shot himself in his car as police closed in.
In the days that followed, multiple vigils were held for the victims, including a large vigil of over 17,000 gathered at UCSB to honor the six victims. Speakers included UC President, Janet Napolitano, and Richard Martinez, the father of one of the shooting victims. Martinez’ passionate voice about his son’s killing in the days after the tragedy has again triggered the gun control debate in this country.
“It’s time to stop the gun violence. Our children deserve a land free from fear,” Martinez told the large crowd. “It’s almost become a normal thing for us to accept this. It’s not normal. Any of us who grew up in the 50s, 60s, 40s, know that life doesn’t have to be like this. So why should it be like this for you people who are young now?”
The crowd later joined Martinez in chanting, “Not one more.”
A small vigil was also held in Chino Hills for Katie Cooper. The May 28 vigil at Calle San Marcos Park was attended by about 200. On hand was Cooper’s father, Dan Cooper, who wanted mourners to remember Katie as a caring person.
“The beauty of her you will hear about now and in the weeks ahead is the image of God she has painted in our heads,” he said.
