Hell on Earth': Parents of Santa Barbara Shooter So Distraught They're Stuttering and 'Crying with Pain

The parents of Santa Barbara mass-killer Elliot Rodger have been "crying with pain" over the six deaths their son caused, so much so that a family friend said "their speech is now stuttered," ABC News reported.

Simon Astaire has been acting as a spokesman for Chin and Peter Rodger in the wake of the Friday night tragedy in the University of California, Santa Barbara college town of Isla Vista. Thirteen other people were injured, and police said Elliot Rodger took his own life.

“Literally, their speech is now stuttered,” Astaire told ABC. “They’re unable to really articulate things in a full sentence.”

Peter Rodger (Image source: ABC News)

Chin Rodger (Image source: ABC News)

“We are crying in pain for the victims and their families,” Astaire said, reading a statement from the parents. “It breaks our heart on a level we didn’t think possible. The feeling of knowing that it was our son’s actions that caused the tragedy can only be described as hell on Earth.”

Photos of the victims. (Image source: ABC News)

Astaire told ABC Rodger's parents worried about him on a daily basis and feared someday he might take his own life.

Rodger had been in therapy and Astaire noted that he had been on Xanax for about six months and had previously refused medication.

“I thought he was the loneliest person I’ve ever seen in my entire life,” Astaire told ABC. “He was an odd child, didn’t quite fit into his skin. He was quite shaky when you met him. He was a tragic figure. And now when I talk about him, knowing what he did, he is in many ways a monster.”

Featured image: AP