Residents of a quiet Oregon town yesterday struggled to comprehend the carnage left by the latest US mass shooting as investigators puzzled over what drove a young gunman to kill nine people in a college classroom before he died in an exchange of gunfire with police.
The Thursday shooting rampage at Umpqua Community College in Roseburg, a former timber town of 20,000 on the western edge of the Cascade Mountains, ranked as the deadliest mass killing this year in the United States.
The gunman stormed into a classroom in Snyder Hall on campus, shot a professor at point-blank range, then ordered cowering students to stand up and state their religion before he shot them one by one, according to survivors’ accounts.
Seven people were hospitalised, three of them listed as critical.
The killer died after exchanging gunfire with two police officers who confronted him.
Because you’re a Christian, you’re going to see God in just about one second
The gunman was not identified by local authorities, and Douglas County Sheriff John Hanlin vowed never to utter his name. But a law enforcement source confirmed media reports naming the suspect as Chris Harper-Mercer, 26.
In a photo posted on what was believed to be his MySpace profile, a young man with a shaved head and dark-rimmed eyeglasses stares into the camera while holding a rifle.
At the White House, a visibly angry President Barack Obama challenged Americans across the political spectrum to press their elected leaders to enact tougher firearms-safety laws. He lashed out at the National Rifle Association gun lobby for blocking reforms and lamented how common mass shootings had become.
Residents at an apartment house a short distance from campus where the suspect lived recognised him from photos and described him as edgy. A man identifying himself as Ian Mercer, the gunman’s father, spoke briefly to a throng of reporters and camera crews outside his home in Los Angeles yesterday.
People take part in candle light vigil following the mass shooting in Roseburg, Oregon, yesterday .“It’s been a devastating day, devastating for me and my family,” he said, according to a transcript provided by KNBC-TV.
Authorities offered no motive for the shooting. Hanlin, the county sheriff, said an investigation was underway by homicide detectives and federal agents. Residents of Roseburg, about 420 km south of Portland, were left to ponder the how and why of the violence.
Accounts from survivors were terrifyingly chilling.
Stacy Boylan, the father of an 18-year-old student who was wounded but survived by playing dead, told CNN his daughter recalled seeing her professor being shot point blank as the assailant stormed into the classroom.
“He was able to stand there and start asking people one by one what their religion was,” Boylan said, relating the ordeal as described by his daughter. “‘Are you a Christian?’ he would ask them. ... ‘If you’re a Christian, stand up. Good. Because you’re a Christian, you’re going to see God in just about one second,’ and he shot and killed them. And he kept going down the line, doing this to people.”
Scores of people huddled at a sombre candlelight vigil in a park yesterday.
“We need to start loving each other as people ... or our nation is going to start falling apart,” said Michael Sprague, 35, a businessman who lives in the Roseburg area. Those grieving at Thursday night’s vigil said they were still trying to understand the tragedy.