Police Say Oregon Shooter Killed Himself

Dressed in a flak jacket, Chris Harper Mercer brought six guns to Umpqua Community College in Roseburg and opened fire on Thursday morning.

“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. Asked on Saturday if the shooter had handed a “box” or other materials to anyone at the scene, Sheriff Hanlin said he did not know. The college will be closed until at least Monday. The gunman thought Lacey Scroggins was dead as well, stepped over her and shot someone else.

The gunman behind the latest mass shooting in the U.S. had hoarded an arsenal of weapons and was enrolled in the class where the fatal shootings occurred, authorities have said.

Law enforcement officials told NBC News that Mercer left behind a multi-page document at the shooting scene espousing what one of them called “a philosophy of hate”.

Eighteen-year-old Kortney Moore of Rogue River told the Roseburg News-Review newspaper she was in a writing class at Umpqua Community College when a shot came through a window.

Alex Frier, stage manager for plays at Umpqua (UHMP’-kwah) Community College, says Christopher Harper-Mercer was a production assistant responsible for building sets last semester.

He said: “And they would stand up and he said, “Good, because you’re a Christian, you’re going to see God in just about one second”.

A sheriff’s spokesman said the threat had subsided over the noon hour. A mass shooting is defined as having four or more victims.

Law enforcement officials have not given details about what happened in the classroom.

He then killed himself after a gun battle with police officers who arrived at the college.

As noted, authorities haven’t yet made any comments on why Chris Harper-Mercer did what he did. Investigators so far have seized 14 guns that were either with him or recovered from his home in an apartment complex about a mile from campus.

“We need to look at the whole picture and be able to not only look at gun control, but help for those that are suffering mentally”, said Mr Rich.

Police have released the names of the victims, who ranged in age from 18 to 67. Beloved sons and daughters.

Nine other people were injured in the rampage, including one woman who was shot in the head, officials said.

The gunman carried six guns, body armour and five magazines of bullets with him to campus.

Oregon’s top federal prosecutor said the shooter used a handgun when he opened fire on classmates and had stashed a rifle in another room but did not fire it.

It was unclear how long Mercer had been a student at Umpqua, a small college of about 3,000 students located in Roseburg, a close-knit rural community.

Bronte Hart, a neighbour in Harper-Mercer’s community of Winchester, said he would “sit by himself in the dark in the balcony with this little light”. But by December 11, 2008, he was discharged for failing to meet the minimum administrative standards.

Social profiles linked to Mercer suggested he was fascinated by the IRA, frustrated by traditional organized religion and tracked other mass shootings. In one post, he appeared to urge readers to watch the online footage of Vester Flanagan shooting two former colleagues live on TV in August in Virginia, noting “the more people you kill, the more you’re in the limelight”.