We are crying in pain for the victims and their families. It breaks our hearts on a level we didn't think possible," Rodger's family said in a statement read by a family friend on "New Day."
"The feeling of knowing that it was our son's actions that caused the tragedy can only be described as hell on Earth."
In a 137-page document, not to mention videos and musings on social media, 22-year-old Rodger hinted that years of rejection and jealousy led him to lash out against beautiful women and popular men.
Simon Astaire, the family friend, shed some light on the kind of person that Rodger was.
"As soon as you met him, he was unbearably reserved, self-contained; he seemed to merge into the walls," he said.
In one brief conversation, Rodger asked Astaire, a novelist, whether writing was a lonely experience.