Oregon gunman had package for police
One student in writing class singled out during rampage to deliver unidentified parcel
ROSEBURG, ORE.— As a 26-year-old killer gunned down victims inside a college classroom, he spared one student and gave him a package to deliver to authorities, according to the grandmother of a student who witnessed the deadly rampage in Oregon.
Gunman Christopher Sean Harper Mercer later killed himself as officers arrived, Douglas County Sheriff John Hanlin said Saturday.
The grandmother, Janet Willis, said her granddaughter Anastasia Boylan was wounded in the Thursday attack and pretended to be dead as Harper Mercer kept firing, killing eight students and a teacher.
Willis said she visited her 18-yearold granddaughter in a hospital in Eugene, where the sobbing Boylan told her: “‘Grandma, he killed my teacher! He killed my teacher! I saw it!’ ”
Boylan also said the shooter told one student in the writing class to stand in a corner, handed him a package and told him to deliver it to authorities, Willis said.
Authorities have not disclosed whether they have such a package, but a law enforcement official said Saturday a manifesto of several pages had been recovered.
The official did not reveal the contents of the document but described it as an effort to leave a message for law enforcement. The official said the document was left at the scene of Thursday’s shooting but wouldn’t specify how authorities obtained it. Boylan, a freshman at Umpqua Community College, also told her grandmother the gunman asked students about their faith.
“If they said they were Christian, he shot them in the head,” Willis said Friday night, citing the account given by her granddaughter.
However, conflicting reports emerged about Harper Mercer’s words as he shot his victims.
Stephanie Salas, the mother of Rand McGowan, another student who survived, said she was told by her son that the shooter asked victims whether they were religious but did not specifically target Christians.
Her son said the shooter had people stand up before asking. “‘Do you have a God? Are you Christian? Do you have a religion?’ It was more so saying, ‘You’re going to be meeting your maker. This won’t hurt very long.’ Then he would shoot him,” Salas told The Associated Press.
Law enforcement officials have not given details about what happened in the classroom.
Harper Mercer was enrolled in the class but officials have not disclosed a possible motive for the killings.
The dead ranged in age from 18 to 67 and included several freshmen. They were sons and daughters, spouses and parents.
Nine other people were wounded in the attack in Roseburg, a rural timber town about 290 kilometres south of Portland.
Meanwhile, army veteran Chris Mintz, who was shot five times when he tried to stop Harper Mercer, was recovering from his wounds Saturday.
His aunt, Wanda Mintz, said her 30-year-old nephew, a student at the college, told classmates to remain calm and went to the door as the shooter came across the hallway. He tried to stop the gunman from entering the classroom and was shot three times.
After Mintz fell, he told the suspect: “‘It’s my son’s birthday today. Don’t do this,’ ” his aunt told reporters. The gunman then shot him at least twice more and went into the classroom, where he kept firing.
Wanda Mintz said her nephew tried to crawl away but could not move because of his wounds. He was recuperating at a hospital in Roseburg and was expected to survive.
In an interview with ABC News, the younger Mintz said: “I just hope that everyone else is OK. I’m just worried about everyone else.”
Word of Mintz’s actions spread quickly. A page set up by his family on the fundraising site GoFundMe received $679,000 (U.S.) in donations as of Saturday evening.
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.
Several years ago, Harper Mercer moved to Winchester, Ore., from Torrance, Calif., with his mother, Laurel Harper, a nurse.
At an apartment complex where Harper Mercer and his mother lived in southern California, neighbours remembered him as a quiet, odd young man who rode a red bike.
Reina Webb, 19, said Harper Mercer’s mother was friendly and often chatted with neighbours, but her son kept to himself. Webb said she occasionally heard him having temper tantrums in his apartment.
Harper Mercer’s social media profiles suggested he was fascinated by the Irish Republican Army and frustrated by traditional religion.
He tracked other mass shootings. In one post, he appeared to urge readers to watch online footage of two journalists being gunned down live on TV in August in Virginia, noting “the more people you kill, the more you’re in the limelight.”