Pastor’s sermon: “Violence will not have the last word”

As police investigate Thursday’s mass shooting at a college in Oregon, neighbors are seeking answers of their own- even as they battle through enormous pain.

Classes do not resume at Umpqua Community College until next week, but a few students came to the campus to pick up belongings they left behind Thursday when they fled.

Cheyeanne was struck just below her shoulder blade by a bullet that clipped her lung and lodged in her kidney, which had to be removed in surgery, her family said. He asked a woman nearby if Lacey was alive, and when the woman replied that she didn’t know, he walked over Lacey and shot another student, Scroggins said.

Douglas County Sheriff John Hanlin said Mercer exchanged fire with two officers who had attended the scene before he committed suicide.

Nutter said parishioners will also be divided into small groups, to pray for the victims and first responders and share their feelings about the shooting with each other. A few witness accounts have said that after killing people who said they were Christian he continued to execute others, doing so randomly.

People, which was read portions of the manifesto by a person close to the investigation, also reported that Harper-Mercer lamented being hated since birth.

When asked about his son’s mental health, his father Ian Mercer told CNN on Saturday that he “has to have a few kind of issue”.

Stephanie Salas, the mother of Rand McGowan, another student who survived, said she was told by her son that the shooter told his victims “this won’t hurt very long” before shooting them.

The daughter wiped away tears as her father told the story of how she survived as the gunman slaughtered her classmates. “I’m the sane one”, according to officials.

Myspace Christopher Harper-Mercer had 13 weapons at his disposal, and brought half a dozen with him for his classroom massacre on Friday. Authorities say they have the shooter’s manifesto but have not revealed its contents.

Faculty, staff and a few students have returned to an Oregon community college for the first time since a gunman killed nine people last week.

Harper-Mercer was enrolled in the class, but officials haven’t disclosed a possible motive for the killings.

Harper-Mercer’s social media profiles suggested he was fascinated by the Irish Republican Army and frustrated by traditional organized religion.

Harper-Mercer, who moved to the USA from England as a child, was armed with three pistols and a rifle at the time of the attack.

In online postings linked to Mercer’s email address, investigators reportedly found one entry in which he expressed sympathy for a dismissed television reporter who killed two former colleagues during a live broadcast in Virginia in August.

Authorities said that all of Mercer’s guns were purchased legally.

The mass shooting reflects a grim reality of American life, with similar incidents happening on a regular basis.