Oregon gunman in massacre had cache of 13 weapons, US agent says

ROSEBURG, OREGON - The Oregon gunman who carried out an execution-style massacre at a college classroom had a cache of 13 weapons, body armor and ammunition, authorities said on Friday as they sought a motive for the bloodiest US mass shooting this year.

Celinez Nunez, assistant special agent of the US Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, disclosed the cache as details emerged about the suspect in Thursday's rampage at Umpqua Community College in Roseburg, about 180 miles (290 km) south of Portland.

Six of the guns, plus body armor and five magazines of ammunition were recovered from the campus where the gunman stormed into a classroom, killing nine people before he was shot dead by police, Nunez told a news conference.

Douglas County Sheriff John Hanlin declined to name the gunman, saying, “Again, you will not hear anyone from this law enforcement operation use his name. I continue to believe that those media and community members who publicize his name will only glorify his horrific actions. And eventually, this will only serve to inspire a future shooter."

Law enforcement sources confirmed reports identifying the suspect as Chris Harper-Mercer, 26.

The gunman shot a professor and then ordered cowering students to stand up and state their religion before he shot them one by one, according to survivors' accounts.

Another seven guns and a significant stockpile of ammunition were found at the apartment he shared with his mother in nearby Winchester, about 170 miles (273 km) south of Portland, Nunez said.

Although authorities have disclosed scant information about the gunman, they appeared to be learning more about him and why he might have opened fire.

The shooter left behind a "multipage, hate-filled" statement in the classroom, according to a tweet from an NBC reporter, citing multiple law enforcement sources who were not identified. Citing unspecified sources, CNN said the statement showed animosity toward blacks.

Hanlin declined to comment when asked about the writings at a news conference.

Harper-Mercer, who identified himself on a blog post as "mixed race," enlisted in the US Army and served for about a month in 2008 before being discharged for failing to meet administrative standards, military records showed.

A man identifying himself as the gunman's father Ian Mercer told reporters outside his home in Los Angeles on Thursday night, "It's been a devastating day, devastating for me and my family."

At some point of his life, 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. On an undated Myspace page, he posted photos of masked IRA gunmen carrying assault rifles.

Harper-Mercer was born in the United Kingdom and arrived in the United States as a young boy, his stepsister Carmen Nesnick told CBS Los Angeles.

After the shooting, Mercy Medical Center in Roseburg received 10 patients, including one who died in the emergency room, hospital officials told reporters on Friday. Three were transported to other facilities because they needed a higher level of care, four required surgery, and two were treated and released. All were treated for gunshot wounds.

Gun control debate
The violence, the latest in a series of high-profile mass killings across the country, has fueled demands for stricter gun control in the United States.

Not counting Thursday's incident, 293 US mass shootings have been reported this year, according to the Mass Shooting Tracker website, a crowd-sourced database kept by anti-gun activists that logs events in which four or more people are shot.

Hours after Thursday's shooting, a visibly frustrated President Barack Obama urged Americans to press their elected leaders to enact tougher firearms safety laws.

"Somehow this has become routine. The reporting is routine. My response here, at this podium, ends up being routine," he said. "We’ve become numb to this."

Gun control advocates say easy access to firearms is a major factor in the shooting epidemic, while the National Rifle Association and other pro-gun advocates say the Second Amendment of the US Constitution guarantees Americans the right to bear arms.

Oregon Governor Kate Brown declined in television interviews on Friday morning to discuss gun control, as did the sheriff, and both said it was a time for healing the community.

A month after the December 2012 mass shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Connecticut, Hanlin wrote a sharply worded letter to Vice President Joe Biden saying he would never enforce a federal law that violates the Constitution.

"Gun control is NOT the answer to preventing heinous crimes like school shootings," Hanlin wrote in the letter, dated Jan. 15, 2013. (Additional reporting by Doina Chiacu in Washington; Suzannah Gonzales in Chicago; Jane Ross in Roseburg; Shelby Sebens in Portland, and Katie Reilly and Angela Moon in New York)

source: interaksyon.com

Oregon gunman kills 10 before being slain in latest US school shooting

LOS ANGELES -- A 20-year-old gunman went on a shooting rampage at a community college in the US state of Oregon on Thursday, killing 10 people and wounding seven before he died in a shootout with police.

A visibly angry President Barack Obama made an impassioned plea for gun control in the wake of the shooting, blasting Congress for its failure to act in the face of "routine" mass killings.

The gunman opened fire in a classroom at Umpqua Community College in rural Roseburg, and moved to other rooms methodically gunning down his victims, witnesses said.

Douglas County Sheriff John Hanlin said 10 people were killed and seven were injured, several critically. He said the identity of the victims would not be released for 24 to 48 hours.

But US officials have identified the gunman behind the deadly shooting at a community college in Oregon as Chris Harper Mercer, 26, media reported Thursday.

Several media outlets including CNN, CBS and NBC, released Mercer's name.

Media reports said investigators had interviewed Mercer's family and friends and were closely looking at his social media postings for clues.

Reports also said he was not a student at Umpqua Community College, located in rural Roseburg.

Student Cassandra Welding was in an adjacent room when the shooting broke out.

"I probably heard a good 35 to 40 shots," Welding told US media.

She saw a fellow student be shot after opening the classroom door to see what was happening, she said.

"Then we locked the doors, turned off the lights and ... we were all pretty much in panic mode and called 911 (emergency services) and our parents and (said) 'I love yous' because we didn't know what would happen, if those were our last words."

Voicing his anger and sadness at the latest loss of life, Obama threw down the gauntlet to lawmakers -- and the people who vote for them -- on the thorny issue of gun control.

"Somehow this has become routine," said the president. "We become numb to this."

"We can actually do something about it, but we're going to have to change our laws," said a stony-faced Obama. "This is not something I can do myself. I have to have a Congress and state legislatures and governors who are willing to work with me on this."

"It cannot be this easy for somebody who wants to inflict harm on other people to get his or her hands on a gun," Obama said.

"Prayers are not enough," he added. "This is a political choice we make."

'Waiting for last bus' 

Police were alerted to the shooting shortly after 10:30 am and rushed to the site as it was still unfolding.

"Upon arriving there, they located the shooter in one of the buildings," Hanlin said, adding that police exchanged fire with the gunman who was later confirmed dead.

It was not yet known if the shooter, identified only as a male aged 20, was a student at the college.

Authorities said investigators were examining social media postings thought to belong to him. Several reports said he may have shared his intentions online beforehand.

Other reports said police recovered a cell phone at the scene, presumably the shooter's, that contained messages linked to the massacre.

Authorities said four weapons were recovered from the scene, according to local news reports.

Police searched the entire campus after the shooting aided by sniffer dogs and patted down students and staff as they left and boarded buses that transported them to local fairgrounds.

College interim president Rita Cavin said the priority was to reunite students and staff with their loved ones.

"We have families waiting for the last bus of students to arrive and have grief counselors for those who have no children coming off the bus," she said.

"It's sad to watch the families wait for the last bus."

We all froze 

Roseburg is described as a close-knit, logging community with many locals attending the college, which caters to some 3,300 students.

"Most of us have relatives taking classes here," said Douglas County fire Marshall Ray Shoufler. "Pretty much everybody knows everybody type scenario.

"So something like this affects many, many, many people."

Brady Winder, a student at Umpqua, said he was in class when suddenly he heard a loud pop coming from an adjoining classroom.

He said his teacher called out through the door to see if everything was OK and then further shots rang out.

"We all kind of froze and bolted out the door," Winder said. "I didn't really have any time to think. It was fight or flight."

School shootings are a disturbing reality of American life and many facilities have reinforced security in recent years, especially in the wake of the Sandy Hook massacre in 2012.

Twenty students and six adults were killed at the Sandy Hook Elementary School in Connecticut by 20-year-old Adam Lanza.

On Wednesday, a student who got into an argument with the principal at a high school in South Dakota pulled a gun and shot the school official in the arm before he was tackled and subdued by staff.

source: interaksyon.com