Inside a Santa Barbara coffee shop, the father of a killer and the father of one of his victims shared their grief and vowed to unite to prevent future tragedies.
Richard Martinez, whose son Christopher, 20, was one of six University of California, Santa Barbara, students killed by 22-year-old Elliot Rodger, met Sunday with Rodger's father, Hollywood director Peter Rodger.
"We plan to work together so other families such as ours will not suffer as ours have," Richard Martinez tells KEYT-TV in Santa Barbara. "This was a private conversation between grieving fathers who've reached common ground."
According to police, hours after posting a disturbing YouTube video hostile to women, Elliot Rodger went on a killing spree in the beachside community of Isla Vista, stabbing to death three men in his apartment, fatally shooting three others and injuring others with his car.
In the days following the killings, Richard Martinez expressed interest in meeting Peter Rodger. "I lost my son. He lost his son. We have that in common," he told the Los Angeles Times. "We want, if possible, that the deaths of our son and his son should mean something."
Link