Vigil Held for San Jose Graduate Killed in Isla Vista Rampage

The mother of Isla Vista slaying victim George Chen spoke at a vigil for her son Thursday night, asking everyone in attendance to search their souls and replace any hatred and violence with love.

"As a mother I pray, I pray that there will be an end of killing innocents and there has to be an end of killing innocents," said Kelly Wang, Chen's mother.

Chen, a 2012 graduate from Leland High School in San Jose, was one of six people killed Friday by a deranged man near Santa Barbara. Hundreds of people gathered Thursday night at Leland High to remember Chen.

"This vigil tonight is proof of the kindness he showed us and that is how I want to remember George -- how all of us remembered George," friend Thaddeus Jordan said.

Chen's parents said they were looking forward to having their son back home for summer break.

The 19-year-old student was following in his father's footsteps and studying computer science at the University of California, Santa Barbara. He was one of three men killed inside an apartment by 22-year-old Elliot Rodger, who also lived in the apartment in the Isla Vista area outside Santa Barbara, according to police.

Rodger stabbed to death Chen, his 20-year-old roommate, a 2012 graduate of Lynbrook High School in San Jose whose family asked that he be referred to by his initials, C.H., and Weihan Wang, 20, a graduate of Fremont Christian School in Fremont, police said.

Rodger then gunned down two young women and a young man and injured 13 others in the rampage near the UCSB campus before apparently shooting himself to death inside his car, investigators said.

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