Gunman kills 9 at Oregon college, dies in shootout with police

ROSEBURG, Oregon - A gunman burst into a community college in southwest Oregon on Thursday and opened fire, killing nine people and wounding seven others before police shot him to death, authorities said, in the latest mass killing in America.

The suspect, who witnesses say fired dozens of shots into a classroom full of screaming students, was then slain in an exchange of gunfire with police in Snyder Hall at Umpqua Community College in Roseburg following the rampage shortly after 10:30 a.m. local time (1730 GMT).

He was not identified by local authorities but CBS, CNN and NBC named him as 26-year-old Chris Harper, citing anonymous law enforcement sources.

CNN reported that three handguns and a "long gun" belonging to him were recovered from the scene.

The massacre in Roseburg, a former timber town in Umpqua River Valley, is the latest in a series of mass shootings at US college campuses, movie theaters, military bases and churches in recent years. It marked the deadliest since a shooting rampage in June at a South Carolina church that killed nine.

The killings have fueled demands for more gun control in the United States, where ownership of firearms is protected by the Second Amendment of the US Constitution, and better care for the mentally ill.

 President Barack Obama, speaking just hours after the rampage, said the mass killing should move Americans to demand greater gun controls from elected officials.

"Somehow this has become routine," a visibly angry Obama said. "The reporting is routine. My response here, at this podium, ends up being routine. ...We've become numb to this."

Kortney Moore, 18, told the local News Review newspaper that she was in her writing class in Snyder Hall when a gunshot came through the window and struck her teacher in the head.

Moore said the gunman told people to get on the ground, then asked them to stand up and state their religion before he started shooting.

Freshman Kenny Ungerman told NBC that said he saw the shooter, dressed in jeans and a T-shirt, carrying a handgun as he went into the building, followed by gunshots and screams. Student Cassandra Welding told CNN that she heard 35 to 40 shots.

Student Brady Winder, in a posting on Facebook, said he was in a classroom next door to the room where the shooting began and ran, along with his classmates, when they heard the gunfire.

"I ran to the edge of the campus, down a hill and waited. From talking with a student in the classroom where it happen, almost every person in the room was shot by a man with four guns," Winder, 23, wrote.

"I'm still shaken up ... I can't wrap my mind around this. Please just pray for the families and parents of these students," he posted.

Douglas County Sheriff John Hanlin said three of the shooting victims were listed in critical condition on Thursday evening.

PeaceHealth Sacred Heart Medical Center emergency room doctor Hans Notenboom told reporters three women between the ages of 18 and 34 were flown to the hospital in Riverbend by helicopter, and two were moved directly into operating room.

Survivors were transported to a local fairgrounds and some family members were left waiting for hours to see if their loved ones would be among them.

"We have grief counselors waiting for those parents who have no children getting off that bus," said the college's president, Rita Calvin.

Following the bloodshed a convoy of state and federal authorities descended on Roseburg. Agents from the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the US Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives were on their way to Roseburg.

Police descended on an apartment about 2 miles (3 km) from the campus possibly linked to the suspect, where police tape prevented access. It was not immediately clear who lived in the residence.

The college, which began its fall term this week and serves more than 13,000 students, 3,000 of them full-time, said it would be closed until Monday. A candlelight vigil was scheduled for nightfall.

In 2012, seven students at the small Christian college Oikos University in Oakland, California, were shot dead by a former student, marking the deadliest outburst of violence at a US college since April 2007, when a student at Virginia Tech University killed 32 people and wounded 25 others before taking his own life. —Reuters

Teen gunman in Oregon school shooting got weapons from home

TROUTDALE, Oregon - The teenage gunman who killed a classmate at an Oregon high school on Tuesday was armed with a military-style rifle and a semiautomatic pistol obtained from his home and lacked any known connection to his victim, police said on Wednesday.

Police said an autopsy of the suspect, Jared Michael Padgett, 15, confirmed that he died of a self-inflicted gunshot wound after exchanging fire with police inside Reynolds High School in Troutdale, a Portland suburb.

The shooting, which ended with Padgett's body being found in a bathroom stall of the gymnasium building, marked the third outbreak of deadly gun violence to shake a US high school or college campus in less than three weeks.

Troutdale Police Chief Scott Anderson declined at a news conference to offer an explanation for what may have driven Padgett to walk into a boy's locker room and shoot a fellow freshman, 14-year-old Emilio Hoffman.

"We have not established any link between the student and shooter," Anderson said. "At this time it would be inappropriate to discuss a motive."

But he credited a school gym teacher, Todd Rispler, with preventing further loss of life. Rispler was grazed by gunfire as he encountered Padgett but made his way to the school office to warn administrators of the attack and initiate a lockdown, Anderson said.

Anderson said Padgett opened fire with an AR-15-style rifle and also was carrying a semiautomatic handgun that he did not use, as well as a large knife and nine loaded ammunition magazines with a capacity for several hundred rounds.

The youth arrived at the school on Tuesday morning by school bus, carrying a guitar case and a duffel bag. When confronted in the locker room by the teacher, the boy wore a vest used for carrying ammunition and other items and a camouflage-colored athletic helmet, Anderson said.

"The shooter obtained the weapons from his family home," the chief said. "The weapons had been secured, but he defeated the security measures."

Police have not said whether the firearms were legally owned or registered by family members.

A statement released by Hoffman's family described him as an avid soccer player who also enjoyed science and history and whose laughter was infectious. "You couldn't be around Emilio without laughing," his mother, Jennifer, wrote.

The Portland Oregonian newspaper reported that Padgett was active in the Mormon church as well as the Junior Reserve Officer Training Corps, with a strong interest in guns and aspirations to follow his older brother into the military.

One fellow member of his JROTC class, Agustin Guzman, 16, told the newspaper that Padgett had a rigid side.

"He was one of those organized people who liked order, liked everything to be really perfect," he said, recounting that Padgett became "really irritated if we messed up" when folding the American flag.

Another friend, Kaylah Ensign, recalled Padgett losing his temper when others disagreed with him during a class presentation on a book he read about Adolf Hitler. —Reuters

source: gmanetwork.com

Battling Alzheimer’s in US, TOYM awardee Alberto Florentino thought of suicide

Exclusive of the Filipino Reporter, a content partner of GMA News Online

Alberto S. Florentino, one of the Philippines’ surviving literary treasures, has been diagnosed with Alzheimer’s in early 2012 and has been suffering from depression ever since, according to his wife, Eva San Jose Florentino.

Formerly based in New York City, he is now residing at an assisted-living facility in Portland, Oregon.

Eva lives in a nearby apartment and regularly checks on him.

Born in Nueva Ecija on July 28, 1931, Florentino, now 81, is a prolific author and playwright who shot to fame in the 1950s with his work, “The World is an Apple,” one of the most performed plays in the Philippines to this day and which also gave him his first Carlos Palanca Award in 1954 when he was just 23 years old.

He is a contemporary of Nick Joaquin, Jose Garcia Villa and NVM Gonzalez.

Also known as the main scriptwriter of the award-winning TV drama series in the 60s and 70s “Balintataw,” he has written 100 plays for television and cinema, and more than 50 for stage, besides having published several collections of his own plays and more than 70 titles by other Filipino authors.

He became a TOYM (Ten Outstanding Young Men) awardee for literature in 1960, an honor he shared with then Sen. Benigno Aquino Jr., (for public service).

In 2008, Florentino was given a Presidential Medal of Merit for being a distinguished literary giant.

Today, the former University of the Philippines (U.P.) professor is no longer writing and spends most of his time reading books at Laurelhurst Village, a senior care community in Portland.

“He loves to buy books on sale and get the old ones thrown out by libraries,” Eva told the Filipino Reporter in an exclusive interview on Christmas Day.

“Yun na lang ang kaligayahan niya sa ngayon.”

“He has no friends here because we just moved here and most of his surviving friends are either in New York or Manila,” said Eva, herself a writer, art curator and retired university professor.

The couple relocated to Portland to be close to their daughter Lisa, a voice teacher who has a private studio there.

Eva recalled that her husband’s depression came upon when his doctor told him he’s in the early stages of Alzheimer’s.

The diagnosis was a result of a medical test after Florentino got lost twice and couldn’t find his way home from his regular trip to a coffee shop.

“Bert couldn’t accept the fact that he has Alzheimer’s which he knows is a progressive disease that has no cure,” shared Eva.

“He used to be so good at computers but he couldn’t write anymore and his depression only worsened. He started acting strange and even became suicidal, threatening to jump from a building.”

At one point, Florentino reportedly requested for an assisted suicide, which is legal in Oregon, as long as it is self-administered.

But Eva said the doctor told him he’s not qualified to receive it since he has Alzheimer’s which, by definition, robs its victims of good judgment and the capacity to understand consequences — and ultimately the ability to carry out their own deaths.

Florentino’s condition has taken its toll on their family, according to Eva, which was aggravated by the sudden passing of one of their daughters, Sonya, 52, who was found dead in her Manhattan apartment in November.

The cause of death was pneumonia.

“We all try to be strong for each other,” Eva said, “especially me, I already had quadruple bypass. I cannot die. Not now. Hindi ako puwede mamatay because my husband needs me.”

“I thank God we’re holding up well and my whole family is my source of strength,” she added.

“Like this Christmas, all of our children and grandchildren are here with us. Even our daughter Leila, who is based in Paris, flew in with her daughter Tess to be with us again.”

The Florentinos’ have a fourth daughter, Angeli, who is a social worker in New York City.

At present, Florentino is under medication and has been seeing a psychologist every other week.

“He’s okay as long as he taking his medication religiously,” Eva said.

“Aside from reading, he goes to concerts and watches movies. Like the the other day we watched the movie ‘Lincoln’ and he loved it. We talked about the movie.”

“He hasn’t lose cognition,” she added.

“He still remembers people and events. He stays in my apartment during weekends, but it’s better that he’s in the assisted-living facility where he is closely monitored.”

When the Reporter got a chance to talk to Florentino on the phone recently, he sounded coherent and even talked about his illness.

“The doctor told me I have Alzheimer’s...and I’m battling this terrible depression,” he said.

“But I’m aware of what’s going on around me. I feel fine and I feel normal. I know you...and I know all of my friends. Just pray for me.”

For those who want to get in touch with Bert Florentino, e-mail Eva at evasjflorentino@aol.com

To send him a card or letter, e-mail it to Eva’s apartment at 333 NW 4th Avenue, Apt. 327, Portland, Oregon 97209. - Filipino Reporter

 

source: gmanetwork.com