Several students said Mercer had also signed up for a theatre class that had not yet started. For Pastor Scroggins, the day of the shooting ended with a reunion with his daughter outside the college. His blood spilled over her and on to the floor next to her arm.
Advertisement
Scroggins could hear someone gurgling. “Don’t do this.” The gunman then shot him at least twice more and went into the classroom, where he kept firing.
Harper-Mercer, who died during a shootout with police, was armed with handguns and a rifle, a few of which were military grade.
The shooting Thursday at Umpqua (UHMP’-kwah) Community College also wounded seven.
By early evening on Thursday multiple law enforcement vehicles, personnel and dogs had gathered at the pink apartment complex, which is about a four-minute drive for Umpqua Community College. Its website said it offered “a peaceful, safe atmosphere”.
Harper-Mercer’s social media profiles suggested he was fascinated by the Irish Republican Army and frustrated by traditional organised religion.
A pastor whose daughter survived last week’s deadly rampage in a college classroom told his congregation on Sunday that “violence will not have the last word” in this southern Oregon timber town.
He said the majority of U.S. citizens were in favour of “common sense” gun controls but needed to become one-issue voters.
Natalie Robbins was in another writing class nearby in Snyder Hall when she heard the first muffled gunshot that sounded more like a table had been overturned. We started to run to the center of campus.
The first emergency call was made at 10:38 a.m., but those on campus were not immediately alerted.
Bronte Hart, who lives in the building where Mercer lived, said the man would “sit by himself in the dark in the balcony with this little light”.
Boylan, 18, was hit in the back by a bullet that traveled down her spine. He killed my teacher! He killed my teacher!
“We locked the doors, turned off the lights, and we were all pretty much in panic mode”, she said.
Another student, Cassandra Welding, said that when the shots rang out, the students in her class dropped to the ground – huddling behind backpacks and chairs, or underneath tables.
He says the Oregon attack would not have happened if his son had not been able to get guns. Stand up. What religion are you?
Salas said it was like telling the victims “you’re going to be meeting your maker”. According to the Roseburg News-Review. “And, you know, not knowing where SWAT was on their response time, they wouldn’t know who we were, and if we had our guns ready to shoot, they’d think we were the bad guys”. The gunman thought his daughter was dead. A man who was known by no one, is now known by everyone.
Roseburg was still struggling to come to terms with the shooter’s actions. The gunman opened fire, striking Mintz. He shot her professor point-blank.
One woman tried to show sympathy for the shooter, saying she was sorry for whatever happened to him.
Perhaps in a reference to the afterlife, he announced: “Don’t anybody worry”.
McGowan, 18, managed to stay alive by staying as still as possible and avoiding eye contact with the shooter, his mother recounted. “And then he walked over, Daddy, and he began to shoot”. Lucas, his two brothers, Mitchell and Cole, and sister Alexis graduated from high school this year.
“Rand was like, ‘Oh my goodness, ‘ and said ‘Thank you Lord!” My heart is broken, ‘ said David Furman, a lifelong friend. “If it had rang, he would have been picked out”.
According to a source from the federal law enforcement, which is remaining anonymous until the investigation of the shooting closes, Harper-Mercer was not only obsessed with guns, but he also had a proclivity towards white supremacy.
An official says the gunman who killed nine people at an Oregon community college left a “manifesto” that was a couple pages long.
Identities may be released Friday or Saturday, the sheriff said.
The gun-nut shot himself after police arrived. “I’m full of anger, pain, sadness, regret that I didn’t get the chance to see her or prevent this from happening”.
Advertisement
18-year-old Lacey, center, listens to her father’s sermon at church.
