Richard Martinez remembers driving his son, Christopher Michaels-Martinez, from San Luis Obispo County to UC Santa Barbara for his first-year orientation. He remembers how happy Michaels-Martinez was that day and how excited he was to be in Isla Vista.

On Thursday, Martinez made that same drive from San Luis Obispo County, this time to mark the 10-year anniversary of when his son and five other Isla Vista residents were murdered. 

“Ten years ago on this day, they lived — full of hopes, full of dreams, full of life. Ten years ago, they died — each alone in the final moment in an apartment, on the street, at a deli,” Martinez said. “We must learn from the past and do better for them, for us, for those to come.”

Thursday marked the 10-year anniversary of the day six residents were killed and many others injured in a massacre in Isla Vista. Michaels-Martinez, Katie Cooper and Veronika Weiss were shot to death by a former Santa Barbara City College student, 22-year-old Elliot Rodger, after he stabbed his roommates, Weihan “David” Wang and Chen Yuan “James” Hong, and their friend, George Chen.

Rodger wounded 14 others before shooting himself and crashing his car on the 6500 block of Del Playa Drive.

Families and friends of the victims as well as local leaders and residents gathered at the Love and Remembrance Garden in Isla Vista to remember the victims.  

“Our loved ones, friends and classmates are now gone. We are here, filled with hope, filled with dreams, filled with life,” Martinez said. “We will do what they cannot. We will live the life they can’t. We will make the world better with our hearts and with our minds.”

Thursday’s remembrance event included musical performances from Victoria Eulloque and Ethan Barmache, who sang a cover of “Yellow” by Coldplay, and the UCSB men’s a capella group, BFOM. Speakers included family members, former students and current campus leaders. 

Kelly Chen, George Chen’s mother, woke up at 3 a.m. Thursday to drive from San Jose for the remembrance event. She spoke briefly, thanking the crowd for still remembering her son and the other victims. 

“I’m gonna remember him my whole life, until the day I breathe my last breath,” Chen said. 

UCSB Chancellor Henry Yang spoke about how the tragedy brought the campus community together. 

“For our campus, May 23, 2014, was one of our darkest moments. The days that followed were grueling and the night sleepless,” Yang said. “But through the pain and sorrow emerged courage and compassion. We received an outpouring of support from our community, our alumni, our sister campuses, and countless friends and colleagues around the world. And we found a pillar of strength in each other.” 

Jonathan Abboud, general manager of the Isla Vista Community Services District, who was the outgoing Associated Students president at the time, reaffirmed a statement he made at Harder Stadium just days after the massacre. 

“We can overcome this loss, but we can only overcome it together,” Abboud said. “I’m so honored to be a resident of this community and to have had the chance to see how it’s changed and come together since that night.”

In the Love and Remembrance Garden are six benches, one for each of the victims designed in partnership with their families to reflect who they were. Pictures of all the victims and information about their lives were placed on their respective benches. Guests placed flowers on the benches as they walked through the garden.

Actions Taken Since the Massacre

In the aftermath of the massacre, California became the first state to pass red-flag laws, including Assembly Bill 1014, which allows individuals to petition a judge if they believe someone they know is a danger to themselves or others in order to prevent them from owning a firearm. The law also allows for the temporary removal of firearms from individuals at risk of committing acts of violence. 

“This is a proven law that saves lives,” said Kendall Pata, a leader of the Santa Barbara chapter of Moms Demand Action, an advocacy group working to end gun violence. 

Pata said she believed red-flag laws have been effective in preventing gun violence in California. 

“In California, we’ve seen a huge reduction in gun violence,” Pata said. “In states like Texas that don’t have these laws, you can see these types of tragedies keep happening over and over because of their relaxed gun laws.”

Martinez has been working with gun violence survivors across the country since his son’s death and said getting involved in advocacy was therapeutic for him.

“I think one of the ways of creating change is to hear from gun violence survivors,” Martinez said. “Gun violence is traumatic, and it’s traumatic beyond those immediately affected; it affects entire communities. All the students that were here were affected by what happened that night.”

Martinez and Pata both told Noozhawk that change and preventing gun violence start locally. 

“I think gun violence on a national scale is completely overwhelming, but we are making progress locally at a small level,” Pata said. “I just want to make our community safer for our kids and everyone’s kids and families.”