New Day Weekend spoke exclusively with Santa Barbara County Sheriff Bill Brown. According to Sheriff Brown:

It appears Elliot Rodger’s killing spree had been planned for approximately one year.

Rodger purchased three guns in Goleta, Oxnard and Burbank, California from federally-licensed firearms dealers on separate occasions in the past year. At least one of those guns was semi-automatic.

He has received mental health treatment and in the past and was prescribed medication.

When Santa Barbara officers visited Rodger for a family-requested “mental health check,” deputies reported that he was articulate, polite and timid. Rodger told deputies that he was having social problems and was unlikely to continue attending school, but said he was fine and he was not going to hurt anyone or himself.

Rodger sent copies of the 141-page manifesto to several people “very shortly before” launching his killing spree.

Two previous police cases have been documented involving Rodger:

In the Fall of 2013, Rodger was injured at a party, claiming that he was pushed off of a balcony and had been beaten up. But the officer that investigated determined he was the instigator of an argument.

In January of 2014, Rodger called police to report three candles stolen from him by his roommate. Rodger affected a citizen’s arrest of that roommate.