Gunman in Oregon massacre was turned away from firearms academy

ROSEBURG, Ore. - The gunman slain by police after he killed his English professor and eight others at an Oregon college was once turned away from a firearms academy by an instructor who recalled finding him "weird" and "a little bit too anxious" for high-level weapons training.

Christopher Harper-Mercer, 26, who moved to Oregon from the Los Angeles suburb of Torrance, California, was officially identified on Friday as the assailant in the rampage at Umpqua Community College in Roseburg, which ranks as the deadliest among dozens of US mass shootings in the past two years.

According to accounts of survivors, the gunman stormed into the classroom of his introductory writing class to shoot the professor at point-blank range, then began picking off other victims one at a time as he questioned each about their religion and whether they were Christians.

Harper-Mercer had a month-long stint in the Army in 2008 and a preoccupation with weaponry that dated back at least two years.

He sought to register for training in 2012 or 2013 at Seven 4 Para, a private self-defense and law enforcement training academy in Torrance, but Eloy Way, president and head instructor for the center, said he sent Harper-Mercer away.

"We wanted him to take a beginner safety course and he was trying to tell me that he already had experience with firearms and I didn't get a good feeling about him, so I turned him down," Way told Reuters.

"He was just kind of a weird guy and seemed kind of spoiled, immature," Way said. "He was a little bit too anxious to get high-level training and there was no reason for it."

Authorities have disclosed little of what they may know about the gunman's motives.

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

Douglas County Sheriff John Hanlin, who has vowed never to say the gunman's name, declined to comment when asked about the writings at a news conference.

Interest in IRA

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

Harper-Mercer, who identified himself as "mixed race" on a social networking site, 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.

At some point, Harper-Mercer appeared 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's victims were identified as assistant English professor Lawrence Levine, 67, and eight people believed to be his students: Quinn Cooper, 18; Kim Saltmarsh Dietz, 59; Lucas Eibel, 18; Jason Johnson, 33; Sarena Moore, 44; Treven Anspach, 20; and Rebecka Carnes, 18; and Lucero Alcaraz, 19.

Nine more people were wounded, three critically, before Harper-Mercer was killed in an exchange of gunfire with two police officers.

One of those wounded, Chris Mintz, 30, a US Army veteran who served in Iraq, was credited with likely saving lives when he confronted the gunman outside another classroom before police arrived. Mintz drew fire that left him with seven bullet wounds and two broken legs, according to his former girlfriend.

So far this year, 294 US mass shootings have been reported nationwide, 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.

The Roseburg shooting ranks as the deadliest bout of gun violence since September 2013, when a former US Navy reservist working as a government contractor killed 12 people before he was slain by police at the Washington, DC, Navy Yard. About 80 shootings have occurred across the country since then that claimed at least four lives each.

The Oregon shooting has led to fresh demands for stricter gun control in the United States, including an impassioned plea by President Barack Obama for political action, and statements by some Republican presidential candidates supporting the right of Americans to bear arms under the 2nd Amendment to the US Constitution. — Reuters

Victims of Oregon massacre identified

Officials revealed Friday the names of nine people killed by a lone gunman in Oregon, identifying them as five women and four men ranging in age from 18 to 67.

The victims are Lucero Alcaraz, 19, Quinn Cooper, 18, Kim Dietz, 59, Lucas Eibel, 18, Jason Johnson, 33, Lawrence Levine, 67, Sarena Moore, 44, Treven Anspach, 20, and Rebecka Carnes, 18.

Levine, a professor of English, was reportedly one of the first victims of the gunman who burst into a classroom at Umpqua Community College on Thursday armed with an arsenal of guns and ammunition.

Though authorities have yet to formally name him, the gunman has been widely identified as Chris Harper Mercer, 26.

Several local officials held back tears as they spoke at a press conference to release the names of the victims.

A statement read on behalf of Cooper's family said he had just enrolled at Umpqua and described him as a young man who loved dancing and was inseparable from his younger brother Cody.

"Yesterday was his fourth day of college," the statement said. "Quinn was funny, sweet, compassionate and such a wonderful loving person.

"Our lives are shattered beyond repair."

A statement issued by Eibel's family described him as a gifted soccer player who was studying chemistry.

"We have been trying to tell everyone how amazing Lucas was, but that would take 18 years," the family said.

Johnson's family said he was a "proud Christian" who had recently enrolled at Umpqua.

Anspach's parents described him as the "perfect son", who was always positive and "looking for the best in life."

Fire chief Greg Marlar said the massacre had hit home for rescuers as two of the victims were related to fire and emergency personnel.

"Obviously, we are family and this hurts," Marlar said. "The situation is personal to us and we share in the pain that this community is feeling right now." —Agence France-Presse

source: gmanetwork.com

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