Police say he was enrolled in the class he attacked. He killed my teacher!
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ROSEBURG, Ore. (AP) – Oregon Gov. Kate Brown says the gunman in a deadly mass shooting at a community college was a 20-year-old man.
But they had not said whether Mercer committed suicide or was killed by the officers.
The official is familiar with the investigation but was not authorized to disclose information and spoke on the condition of anonymity. CBS News quotes officials as saying 13 weapons have been found, six at the scene of the shooting and seven more at the gunman’s residence.
Ages of Umpqua’s students vary widely. Two of them were specifically about recent shootings – one about Vester Flanagan, who killed two news reporters in Virginia, and one about an officer slain near Houston in August.
– He killed himself during a shootout with police at the scene of the campus shooting.
Stephanie Salas, the mother of Rand McGowan, another student who survived, said she was told by her son that the shooter asked victims whether they were religious but did not specifically target Christians. He said his family wasn’t ready to speak to the media yet. “‘Do you have a God?” ‘If you’re a Christian, stand up.
“He told him ‘please don’t do this, it’s my son’s birthday today, ‘” Mintz’s niece Ariana Earnhardt told CNN.
The writings include feelings of anger about being isolated and unable to form relationships, law enforcement officials said.
A search of his residence turned up a handgun, bringing the total number of guns seized from Mercer to 14.
A woman is comforted as friends and family wait for students at the local fairgrounds after a shooting at Umpqua Community College.
Olson says previous year, one of the biggest debates on campus was whether the school should have armed security officers.
Authorities, who initially refused to name the gunman, shed no light on his motive and said they were investigating. He was studying chemistry and loved to play soccer. “I’m sure a lot of people and families are connected to a few of the victims”, he said.
“He didn’t really, honestly”, McGowan said in a quiet voice while standing on the doorstep of his house in Roseburg, Oregon, on Saturday morning.
Seven others were injured in the shooting at the southern Oregon college when the gunman opened fire in a classroom.
Harper-Mercer, who identified himself on a blog post as “mixed race”, 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. A man who was known by no one, is now known by everyone. She then realized gunshots were ringing out from the next-door classroom – and she ran, too.
“I’ll miss her making fun of me when I would attempt to say the Starbucks cup sizes, getting pissed when I would tackle her with kisses or photograph the heck out of her”, her sister wrote.
At a few point, Harper-Mercer appears to have been sympathetic to the Irish Republican Army, a militant group that waged a violent campaign to drive the British from Northern Ireland.
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The violence, the latest in a series of high-profile mass killings across the country, has fuelled demands for stricter gun control in the United States.
