Megan Carloto, a 22-year-old UCSB graduate, was one of the victims shot by suicide-killer Elliot Rodger. After her release from the hospital, Megan shared some of her recollections and thoughts with ANIMAL. “I think the only thing that saved me was the fact that I was on my bike. I was moving faster and he missed me.”
Below are more excerpts from our hour-long interview presented without questions.
We don’t live in Santa Barbara. We live like 20 minutes away. So when we go hit the bars, we take the bus. I was like “you know what? I’m just gonna go to my friend’s house.” I was going to go to a 90’s themed party. So I biked over wearing a 90s era outfit. I was only two blocks from my house and then it all happened.
I heard the gunshots and thought it was fireworks. Because it’s a loud town, there’s always stuff going on.
I didn’t know if it was blood or not and it didn’t hurt yet so I rolled up on to the sidewalk, laid my bike down, and then my leg started hurting. And then I started screaming for help. A skateboarder riding in front of me turned around and came back to get me.
Two people came out of the 7-Eleven to help me, as well. The guy [Rodger] hadn’t been caught yet, and immediately a cop was sprinting by me with his gun out and he was, like, “Which way did he go? Which way did he go?” and I just pointed.
The two 7-Eleven workers could have just stayed where they were or taken cover, but they came to get me. I’m really thankful for that. I wouldn’t have blamed them if they didn’t. I really wouldn’t have.
It’s my upper thigh. It’s across the top. There are two holes because the bullet went through the top of my thigh. It didn’t hit a bone. It didn’t hit an artery. No surgery, no stitches.
My phone was blowing up cause I had just walked out the door and my housemates heard gunshots. I’m really tight with my housemates and we’re all best friends. I’m supposed to be on my way to this girl’s house, but I’m not answering her or anybody else. I couldn’t call them for 45 minutes and they were just really freaking out.
To be honest I’d rather be in my position than theirs because I would lose my shit if this happened to one of my friends.
I posted something on Facebook saying “Look, I’m OK,” but that I did get shot in the leg. I didn’t have info about the other victims so that’s when I started freaking out, crying, crying cause I need to know if my friends are ok. I didn’t know who got shot, I didn’t know where it all happened, I just knew there was a crash on my street. I posted the status so people knew I wasn’t dead and if they knew anything to tell me. I’m shocked I didn’t know any of the kids who died but my friends did.
A lot of my friends knew Katie Cooper.
I watched Elliot Rodger’s YouTube video a couple hours later. That was the moment when I realized someone tried to kill me. He pulled over his car and pointed at me and shot. I thought I was caught in the crossfire. And it turns out he saw me, pulled over, and shot at me.
That that guy tried to fucking kill me.
I knew a guy who’s arm got grazed, and I knew his girlfriend and she got a bruise out of it. I’m not sure how, I think it really barely touched her.
My friend’s car is the one that Rodger crashed into before he killed himself. What are the odds of that? I think she was away for the weekend, thank god.
I always stuck up for the underdog. Even in high school I would hang out with kids who didn’t have that many friends and I didn’t care what people thought. People would be like “oh, you’re hanging out with him?” I’m like “Yeah, who the fuck cares? He’s cool.” I would have been nice to him and that makes me mad. He just assumed every girl is a bitch.
Even if a girl is a bitch you don’t go shooting at her!
There was an Elliot Rodger fan page on Facebook. I didn’t know people idolize this kind of shit. Psychos on there are saying things like “Oh, those girls deserved it.”
Four boys and two girls died. Yeah, I get there’s a lot of anger towards women but it wasn’t just women who died.
The fact that that son of a bitch could get a gun makes me scared for the future.
Every weekend something happens. You don’t wanna dance with a guy and they yell at you, or they call you a bitch or a slut or whatever, just because you don’t wanna have sex with them. Or if you kiss someone and don’t fuck them you’re a tease. I’ve gotten that before, I’ve had my own guy friends yell at me because I won’t dance with them.
We’re not obligated to fulfill this male desire. And it angers me that people are hurt because this person was so narcissistic that he felt that he should kill people who don’t wanna have sex with him.
There’s no way that any change in legislation would hurt. It can only help. It’s better than nothing. It’s better than just sitting here and thinking “well let’s just prepare ourselves for when it happens again.” We should never have to live like this ever. We should never have to think “let’s prepare ourselves for the next one.” No, let’s prevent the next one from ever happening again. That’s how it should be.
Yeah, it’s still gonna happen. This world is an ugly place sometimes.
I hate when people just say “It’s not gonna stop it.” I know I’m not gonna stop it! I’m not gonna snap my fingers and make everything perfect and one law is not gonna make everything perfect. But at least try. Try something. It’s not gonna hurt.
It’s just two holes. In and out.
