Attorney general says 13 dead in Oregon college shooting; Gunman killed

At least 10 people were killed, when a gunman opened fire inside a classroom at the community college.

About 6 p.m. Thursday, families anxious about loved ones waited at the Douglas County Fairgrounds for an update from law enforcement, including sheriff’s deputies, officers from nearby police departments and the Federal Bureau of Investigation, as the Red Cross handed out food and water.

“We thought it was just a drill maybe because we didn’t hear any alarms or anything at first”, said Luke Rogers.

Law enforcement officials said he lived in the Roseburg area, and said one witness said Harper Mercer asked people to name their religion before he began firing.

Three handguns and a “long gun” belonging to the shooter have been recovered from the scene, according to CNN.

Douglas County Sheriff John Hanlin said investigators are still trying to confirm a great amount of information about the shooting that erupted in an Umpqua Community College classroom and added, the “victims and families of the victims are our priority”.

The Mercy Medical Center in Roseburg said they had received 10 patients from the shooting.

It was not immediately clear if the gunman was counted in the death toll given by Mr Hanlin.

Posts on an online blog that appears to belong to Mercer reference multiple shootings, including one in Virginia in August that left a television news reporter and cameraman dead. I don’t remember – I was so young – if she was going to school there or if she was helping out there, but my brothers and I used to go swimming there at the swimming pool that you can see in those aerial photos.

“Somehow this has become routine”, he said. “The reporting is routine, my response here at this podium ends up being routine … The conversation and the aftermath – we’ve become numb to this”. She also said the shooter told people to state their religions.

“We locked our door, and I went out to lock up the restrooms and could hear four shots from the front of campus”, UCC Foundation Executive Director Dennis O’Neill told the News-Review.

The school has about 3,000 students.

Governor Kate Brown identified the suspect as a 20-year-old man, but authorities did not give further details, except to say that he died in an exchange of gunfire with police. He would not say if the shooter was included in the ten listed dead. “Any actions against, or in disregard to our U.S. Constitution and 2nd Amendment rights by the current administration would be irresponsible and an indisputable insult to the American people”, he wrote.