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Police search students outside Umpqua Community College in Roseburg. Photo: AP
A gunman opened fire at an Oregon community college Thursday, killing at least nine people before dying in a shootout with police, authorities said.
The killer, identified only as a 20-year-old man, invaded a classroom Thursday and demanded that people stand up and state their religion before spraying more bullets, one student reported.
Authorities shed no light on the gunman’s motive and said they were investigating.
Police officers search Umpqua Community College after the shooting. Photo: AFP
A patient is wheeled into the emergency room, following a deadly shooting at Umpqua Community College, in Roseburg. Photo: AP
Oregon Attorney General Ellen Rosenblum had initially said 13 people were dead after the attack at Umpqua Community College in Roseburg, about 290km south of Portland, but that toll was later downgraded to 10 dead. It was not immediately clear whether that number included the gunman. Seven people were wounded, said Douglas County Sheriff John Hanlin.
Kortney Moore told the Roseburg News-Review newspaper that she was in a writing class when a shot came through a window. The gunman entered her classroom and told people to get on the ground. The man then started asking people to stand up and state their religion and opened fire.
Lorie Andrews, who lives across the street from the campus, said she heard what sounded like fireworks followed by sirens. She walked up the road and spoke to students who had streamed out.
“One girl came out wrapped in a blanket with blood on her,” Andrews said.
Hours after the attack, a visibly angry President Barack Obama spoke to reporters, saying the US is becoming numb to mass shootings.
Friends and family are reunited with students at the local fairgrounds after a deadly shooting at Umpqua Community College. Photo: AP
Police search students outside Umpqua Community College in Roseburg. Photo: AP
Repeating his support for tighter gun-control measures, he said thoughts and prayers are no longer enough in such situations because they do nothing to stop similar attacks.
Nodding to the arguments that such shootings are often committed by the mentally ill, Obama said it was clear that anyone who commits such crimes had a "sickness in their minds".
"But we are not the only country on Earth who has people with mental illnesses who want to do harm to other people," he said. "We are the only advanced country on Earth who sees these kinds of mass shootings every few months."
Sheriff Hanlin said the gunman was killed during an exchange of gunfire with officers. The sheriff did not say whether the shooter was killed by officers or took his own life.
“We locked our door, and I went out to lock up the restrooms and could hear four shots from the front of campus,” UCC Foundation Executive Director Dennis O’Neill told the Roseburg newspaper.
Obama makes a statement about the Oregon shootings from the White House. Photo: Reuters
A shooting was reported at Umpqua Community College in Roseberg. Photo: TNS
The school has about 3,000 students. Its website was down Thursday, and a phone message left at the college was not immediately returned.
Neither state police nor the sheriff’s office returned calls from The Associated Press seeking details.
The sheriff’s office reported on Twitter that it received a call about the shooting at 10:38 a.m. The local fire district advised people via Twitter to stay away from the school.
Later in the day, students and faculty members were being bused to the county fairgrounds, the sheriff’s office said.
Former UCC President Joe Olson, who retired in June after four years, said the school had no formal security staff, just one officer on a shift.
One of the biggest debates on campus last year was whether to post armed security officers on campus to respond to a shooting.
“I suspect this is going to start a discussion across the country about how community colleges prepare themselves for events like this,” he said.
Sutherland High School Principal Justin Huntley said some of his former students were in the room where the shooting took place.
The school made counselors available for students.
“It’s a very somber day,” Huntley said. “You take some deep breaths and you just try to get through it.”
Roseburg Public Schools Superintendent Gerry Washburn said a large number of Roseburg High School students go straight to UCC after graduation.
“We are a small, tight community, and there is no doubt that we will have staff and students that have family and friends impacted by this event,” he said.
The rural town lies west of the Cascade Mountains in an area where the timber industry has struggled. In recent years, officials have tried to promote the region as a tourist destination for vineyards and outdoor activities.
A photo posted on a MySpace profile belonging to someone named Chris Harper-Mercer, from Torrance, showed a young man holding a long-barrelled gun.
The man killed by police on Thursday after he fatally shot nine people at a community college in southern Oregon was a nervy 26-year-old who lived close to the campus and described himself as shy, according to neighbours, media and online reports.
A law enforcement source said multiple agencies had identified the shooter as Chris Harper-Mercer. Online directories list a man of that name as having lived in Torrance, California, before moving to Winchester, Oregon.
It was not possible to independently verify the name of the shooter, but on Thursday night law enforcement officers were out in force at the Winchester apartment building identified in databases as Harper-Mercer’s residence.
Read more: Gunman massacres nine at Oregon college before being slain in shootout with police
Two neighbours said they recognised online photos of Harper-Mercer as a man from the apartment building. A phone number listed for the address was busy.
The killer used four guns, including a type of assault rifle, in the classroom attack, CNN said. Seven people were also wounded at the Umpqua Community College in Roseburg, a timber town of about 20,000 people that adjoins Winchester.
Police investigators are seen at residential location believed to be the home of the gunman following a mass shooting at Umpqua Community College in Roseburg, Oregon. Photo: Reuters
A photo posted on a MySpace profile belonging to someone named Chris Harper-Mercer, from Torrance, showed a young man with a shaved head, dark-rimmed glasses and a serious expression. He was holding a long-barrelled gun.
A neighbour next door to the Winchester building said on Thursday night he recognised online photos of Harper-Mercer as being his neighbour.
“I just started noticing him the last 4-6 months, there’s a playground out behind the apartments, and we’re on the second story. I go outside to smoke and I watch for anyone,” said neighbour Steven Fisher, who also said he had never spoken to Harper-Mercer.
“Around 5-5.30 in the evening I’d see him out there with a couple kids. He seemed skittish, always looking over his shoulder to see if anyone was watching,” Fisher said.
Another neighbour also recognised online photos of Harper-Mercer as being a man he knew from the neighbourhood.
Another police investigator is seen at the residential location of the gunman, Chris Harper-Mercer. Photo: Reuters
Many law enforcement cars, personnel and dogs had gathered at the pink apartment complex, about a four-minute drive from Umpqua Community College, by early Thursday evening.
Police tape was drawn across one of the units and officers with a dog were stationed outside. Investigators from agencies including the Douglas County Sheriff’s Department, Homeland Security Protective Services and the FBI were on site.
In an internet posting on the Spiritual Passions dating and social networking site, a user posted a picture that appears to be Harper-Mercer under the user name IRONCROSS45, a handle Harper-Mercer used as his email.
He described himself on the site as a 26-year-old, mixed-race “man looking for a woman”. He said he was “not religious, but spiritual”, and was a “teetotaler” living with his parents and a conservative Republican. Socially, he said, he was “shy at first” and “better in small groups”. He described himself as “always dieting” and looking for “the yin to my yang”.
A girl prays during a vigil in Roseburg, Oregon, after a gunman shot dead 9 people at a college. Photo: AFP
The same email address linked to a Chris Harper-Mercer was also associated with the profile of user Lithium_Love on torrent sharing website KickAssTorrents.
The user wrote a blog post on the site about Vester Flanagan, the man who shot dead two reporters during a live broadcast in August before killing himself, calling the footage of the shooting “good”.
“On an interesting note, I have noticed that so many people like him are all alone and unknown, yet when they spill a little blood, the whole world knows who they are. A man who was known by no one, is now known by everyone. His face splashed across every screen, his name across the lips of every person on the planet, all in the course of one day. Seems the more people you kill, the more you’re in the limelight,” the post said.
The user’s last torrent upload was on Tuesday and was entitled “This World Surviving Sandy Hook BBC Documentary 2015”, according to the website.
Oregon shooting: Meet the hero army veteran who charged at gunman to save fellow classmates
Chris Mintz, 30, was shot by Chris Harper-Mercer five times and after surgery, he is expected to make a full recovery, according to his family
Chris Mintz was shot at least five times as he charged at gunman Chris Harper-Mercer
By Raziye Akkoc
1:55PM BST 02 Oct 2015
An army veteran and student charged at the shooter to save his classmates and was himself shot seven times by the Oregon gunman believed to have a British father, according to his family.
Chris Mintz, 30, has undergone surgery after the shootings at Umpqua Community College on Thursday morning. Ten people were killed after Chris Harper-Mercer went on a shooting rampage at the community college.
Harper-Mercer went from classroom to classroom, killing victims in different rooms in an attack that one witness said lasted a full minute.
Derek Bourgeois told DailyMail.com that his cousin went after the shooter because "there was no way he was going to stand around and watch something this horrific happen".
Oregon shooting hero Chris Mintz Photo: Facebook
"I was told he went after the shooter," Mr Bourgeois, who lives in North Carolina, told the website. His aunt told NBC News he "tried to protect some people".
"We were told he did heroic things to protect some people," Sheila Brown said.
Despite being shot multiple times, the cousin told the website that no vital organs had been hit. He is now recovering after surgery.
The hero, originally from Randleman, North Carolina, began his day wishing Tyrik, his six-year-old son, "happy birthday" on Facebook before he went to the college.
The Daily Beast reported that he said: “It’s my son’s birthday, it’s my son’s birthday,” after being wounded. American media said the veteran served for 10 years in the US army before moving to Oregon to help raise his son.
Mr Mintz joined the army after he graduated high school and was stationed at Fort Lewis in Washington.
According to his cousin, Mr Mintz has enrolled at the community college in Roseburg - and this week was the first - hoping to become a fitness coach. Prior to his studies, his cousin said he used to cage fight.
Mr Mintz had thanked everyone for their support on Facebook, American media reported.
"This is Chris's friend, Chris asked me to thank everyone for their support, he is grateful and keeping our community and all victims in his thoughts."
Harper-Mercer was killed in a firefight with police on Thursday.
Oregon shooter Chris Harper Mercer Chris Harper-Mercer killed 10 people in Thursday's college shooting spree
Oregon shooter seen as recluse with weapons arsenal
AFP
October 3, 2015, 3:04 pm
Roseburg (United States) (AFP) - The 26-year-old gunman behind America's latest mass shooting hoarded an arsenal of weapons, authorities said, describing him as a loner with a gripe against religion.
As details about his personality emerged, the names of the nine people -- five women and four men aged between 18 and 67 -- who died in Thursday's carnage at Umpqua Community College were released.
Though officials have yet to formally name him, the gunman, who died in a shootout with police, has been widely identified as Chris Harper Mercer, 26.
Officials said they had recovered 13 weapons belonging to him, including six at the school. A flak jacket and five rounds of ammunition were also recovered at the school after the rampage.
US media said the shooter suffered from mental illness and left behind a typed statement several pages long in which he indicated he felt lonely and was inspired by previous mass killings.
"He didn't have a girlfriend and he was upset about that," The New York Times quoted an unnamed senior law enforcement official as saying.
"He comes across thinking of himself as a loser," the official told the paper.
"He did not like his lot in life, and it seemed like nothing was going right for him."
Another official said the shooter, who lived with his mother, was obsessed with guns and religion and had leanings toward white supremacy.
- Withdrawn, anxious man -
Witnesses said he demanded to know his victims' religion before shooting them execution-style.
"They would stand up and he said 'Good, because you're a Christian, you're going to see God in just about one second'," Stacy Boylan told CNN, relaying his daughter Ana's account.
He said she was shot in the spine but survived by playing dead.
Officials said they were poring through online postings made by the gunman and examining his computer to try and piece together what set off the rampage.
CNN said he was enrolled at Umpqua but there was no confirmation by local officials.
The gunman's neighbors described him as a withdrawn, anxious man who lived with his mother and kept to himself.
"He was not a friendly type of guy," said Bronte Hart.
"He did not want anything to do with anyone."
The massacre in Roseburg, a close-knit rural community of some 20,000, left residents stunned and struggling to come to grips with the tragedy.
"There is a sense of pride about our community and to think that we're getting national recognition because someone shot people," retired Umpqua theater professor Dean Remick, 62, told AFP.
Families of the victims issued statements expressing their heartbreak at the senseless killings.
"Our lives are shattered beyond repair," said the family of Quinn Cooper, 18, who had just started classes at Umpqua after graduating from high school.
"No one should ever feel the pain that we are feeling."
Relatives of Lucas Eibel, 18, said: "We have been trying to figure out how to tell everyone how amazing Lucas was, but that would take 18 years."
Investigators piece together motive of Oregon shooter
AFP
October 4, 2015, 12:58 pm
Roseburg (United States) (AFP) - Investigators pieced together clues as why a student at a college in Oregon went on a shooting rampage that left nine people dead, before committing suicide as police cornered him.
Officials said the gunman, identified as 26-year-old Chris Harper Mercer, was enrolled at Umpqua Community College in Roseburg and opened fire in his English writing class.
Douglas County Sheriff John Hanlin said Mercer -- whom he has refused to identify by name so as not to give him notoriety -- exchanged fire with two officers who had rushed to the scene before committing suicide.
He said 14 weapons belonging to the shooter had been recovered, including six found at the school along with a flak jacket and ammunition.
Mercer's British-born father Ian, who lives in Torrance, California, said he was devastated by the killings and didn't understand how his son managed to amass his arsenal.
"How on earth could he compile (14) guns?" he told CNN. "If Chris had not been able to get hold of (14) guns it would not have happened."
"My heart goes out to all the other families affected by this," added Ian Mercer, who said he last saw his son when he moved to Oregon with his mother two years ago.
"I know nothing I can say can change what happened. But please believe me, my thoughts are with all those families."
Hanlin said investigators were poring through numerous leads and had interviewed hundreds of people to try to determine what set off the rampage.
The shooting, the latest in a string of similar attacks in recent years at colleges and schools in the United States, has revived a fierce debate on gun control.
Officials say Mercer had struggled with mental health problems for some time and left behind a typed statement several pages long in which he indicated he felt lonely and was inspired by previous mass killings.
The shooter also appeared obsessed with guns and religion and had leanings toward white supremacy.
The mother of one of the nine people injured in the carnage said her 16-year-old daughter saw Mercer single out a student and hand him an envelope before ordering the other students to move to the middle of the classroom.
"He told him 'you're going to be the lucky one' and gave him an envelope," Cheyenne Fitzgerald's mother told reporters. "He was going to be the one telling the story."
She said her daughter was shot in the back and had lost a kidney.
It was unclear how long Mercer had been a student at Umpqua, a small college of about 3,000 students located in Roseburg, a close-knit rural community.
The rampage took place on the fourth day of the new school year.
Witnesses said the gunman asked his victims their religion before shooting them execution-style.
- Passionate about guns -
Hanlin said investigators were examining how Mercer purchased his weapons and were looking at some of his online postings.
Mercer's neighbors have described him as withdrawn and quiet, but passionate when it came to guns.
"When we talked about guns and hunting, he was real open about it," Louie Flores, 32, a neighbor from California, told The New York Times.
"But anything about what was going on in his life, he really didn't say too much at all."
In online postings linked to Mercer's email address, investigators reportedly found one entry in which he expressed sympathy for a dismissed television reporter who killed two former colleagues during a live broadcast in Virginia in August.
Even as there were calls by some for greater gun control, there were others -- like US presidential contender Donald Trump -- who insisted that well-armed Americans are the best protection against shooting rampages.
"If you had a couple of the teachers or someone with guns in that room, you would have been a hell of a lot better off," Trump said on the stump Saturday in Franklin, Tennessee, news reports said.
In Roseburg, residents tried to come to terms with the tragedy and the sad reality that their town would now be remembered as the site of a mass killing.
The bodies of the nine victims -- five women and four men aged between 18 and 67 -- were handed back to their families on Friday.
Fire Marshall Greg Marlar said one of the victims, 20-year-old Treven Anspach, was the son of a local firefighter. Another rescuer lost his niece.
Chris Mintz, 30, an army veteran, had tried to stop the bloodshed by charging Mercer but was shot seven times while pleading that it was his son's sixth birthday. He survived.
The mass shooting reflects a grim reality of American life, with similar incidents happening on a regular basis.
The last mass shooting at a US school took place in 2012 when 20 elementary school students and six adults were killed at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Connecticut.
According to data compiled by the group Everytown for Gun Safety, there have been 142 school shootings in the United States since the Sandy Hook massacre.
Oregon shooter killed himself in front of class: officials
AFP
October 8, 2015, 5:59 am
Los Angeles (AFP) - The gunman behind the massacre at a college in Oregon that left nine people dead killed himself in the classroom where the carnage took place, authorities said Wednesday.
Jim Burge, police chief in the city of Roseburg, said the 26-year-old shooter confronted two police officers who arrived at the scene right after his killing spree.
After being struck by a bullet, he went back into the classroom and committed suicide, Burge said.
"Once the shooter was wounded, he entered the classroom again, and he went to the front of the classroom, and he shot and killed himself," Burge told reporters, hailing the two officers as heroes.
New details have been emerging about the October 1 shooting at Umpqua Community college, in which nine others were injured.
They depict the gunman, identified as Chris Harper Mercer, as an aloof young man who was fascinated with guns and suffered mental health problems.
Authorities have said they recovered 14 firearms belonging to the shooter, including six that were found at the college along with a flak jacket and ammunition.
President Barack Obama is to meet with families of the victims on Friday in Roseburg, a visit that is not being welcomed by everyone in the conservative town.
The father of one girl who was shot in the back and survived by playing dead told Fox News he had declined an invitation to meet with the president, accusing him of politicizing the tragedy.
"On principle, I find that I am in disagreement with his policies on gun control, and therefore, we (the family) will not be attending the visit," Stacy Boylan told the network.
The publisher of the local paper, David Jaques, has also denounced the visit saying Obama was not "welcome here to grandstand for political purposes."
However the city of Roseburg issued a statement on Tuesday saying such comments did not represent the community as a whole and that the president would receive a warm welcome.
The shooting has revived the debate on gun control in America with a visibly angry Obama urging lawmakers after the massacre to revisit the issue.
Mathew Downing spared by Harper-Mercer to deliver package to cops
Lisa Baumann, THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
First posted: Friday, October 09, 2015 11:54 PM EDT | Updated: Saturday, October 10, 2015 08:49 AM EDT
Umpqua Community College shooting survivor Mathew Downing (C) is greeted as he arrives on campus near Snyder Hall on October 5, 2015 in Roseburg, Oregon. Downing was given a package by gunman Chris Harper-Mercer and told he was the "lucky one" who would survive to deliver the package to authorities. Scott Olson/Getty Images/AFP
SEATTLE -- The 18-year-old college student singled out by the shooter as the "lucky one" to survive and deliver a package to law enforcement has told his story for the first time about the massacre in Roseburg, Oregon.
In a written statement that was the most detailed account thus far of the Oct. 1 shooting, Mathew Downing said Friday that when Christopher Harper-Mercer entered the Umpqua Community College classroom, Downing's ears were ringing from shots already fired, and he thought what was happening "couldn't be real."
He said the first thing the shooter did was put his backpack on the front desk and pull out an envelope, saying: "There is a flash drive in this and whoever survives this should give it to the police."
Downing's account of what came next coincides with relatives of survivors who previously reported that Harper-Mercer looked at Downing and said, "Hey kid with the glasses, you are the lucky one. I will not shoot you if you give this to the cops."
Downing said he stood up then, and the shooter pointed a gun at him. "This is the moment I thought I was going to die," Downing said.
Instead, the shooter paused for a moment, Downing said, and handed him the envelope. Next, the shooter told Downing to sit in the very back seat and face him.
Downing did so and said at that point Harper-Mercer fired into the centre of the room and began asking students one by one if they were religious. The shooter fired at one student who said he was Christian and another who said she was Catholic.
The shooter reloaded two handguns with ammunition from his backpack during the killings, Downing said. Harper-Mercer was "firing on people who were just lying there," Downing said.
Downing also said the shooter seemed to lose interest when a woman told him she couldn't move her legs to stand up because of the pain.
He turned to another woman, telling her to stand, and she picked up a desk to defend herself, Downing said. Harper-Mercer fired at her anyway, hitting her in the leg.
When the shooter noticed police, he leaned out a window and fired at them. Downing also wrote that after Harper-Mercer was hit by police gunfire, he lay down on the floor and shot himself in the head.
Harper-Mercer killed nine people and wounded nine others.
