PORTLAND, Ore. – The mother of the Oregon gunman who killed nine in a college classroom apparently wrote about her love of guns in an online forum, referring to places that attempt to pass firearms legislation as “lame states”.
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Others weren’t as fortunate.
After that Lacey heard a shot close to her and realized Anspach, had been shot and he was bleeding. Others were killed after being told to crawl across the floor.
The online writings by Laurel Harper date from a year ago to nine years ago and offer fresh insight into the gunman, 26-year-old Christopher Harper-Mercer, and his relationship with his mother.
Bonnie Schaan, the mother of Cheyeanne Fitzgerald, said she was told by her 16-year-old daughter that the gunman gave someone an envelope and told him to go to a corner of the classroom.
Harper-Mercer, who identified himself as “mixed race” on a social networking site, enlisted in the U.S. Army and served for about a month in 2008 before being discharged for failing to meet administrative standards, military records showed.
Harper-Mercer expressed frustration that other mass killers did not take on police and vowed he would kill them along with others, law enforcement officials said. “I’m not trying to say that that’s to blame for what happened, but if Chris had not been able to get hold of 13 guns, this wouldn’t have happened”, Ian Mercer told CNN outside his home in Torrance, Cal.
“The blood of that boy that covered my daughter saved her life”, Scroggins said.
Lacey Scroggins also spoke about students being ordered to crawl to the middle of the room before being shot.
A memorial was growing on the driveway leading to Snyder Hall, where Harper-Mercer opened fire.
But McGowan said that Mercer didn’t appear to target Christians in particular.
“The Medical Examiner has determined the cause of death of the shooter to be suicide”, said Sheriff John Hanlin of Oregon on Saturday. The official is familiar with the investigation but wasn’t authorized to speak publically because it is ongoing.
All the weapons were legally obtained by the shooter or family members over the past three years through a federally licensed firearms dealer, authorities said. “I don’t use that name”, Keith Weikum, who worked with Mercer on theater productions at Umpqua Community College, told the Los Angeles Times.
Witnesses said the gunman asked his victims their religion before shooting them execution-style.
GOLDMAN: Then quickly, the gunman ordered a male in an orange shirt to come forward, asked if he were Christian and shot the person when he replied yes.
“‘Do you have a God?”
Salas said it was like telling the victims “you’re going to be meeting your maker”.
“They had been waiting for a long time, hoping, praying”, Nutter said.
He then killed himself after a gun battle with police officers who arrived at the college.
Officials have not released a motive.
An 18-year-old student who survived the Oregon classroom shooting by playing dead joined families of the massacre victims as residents attended emotional church services across the town.
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Harper-Mercer’s father, Ian Mercer, told CNN on Saturday that he is struggling to understand how and why the shooting happened and that he was stunned to learn his son had accumulated so many guns.
