PSYCHO IN THE CLASS
Armed with 6 guns, he killed prof first
COURSES AT Umpqua Community College were open for just four days when Chris Harper Mercer (inset) mercilessly murdered the instructor and eight classmates in his Introduction to Expository Writing class on Thursday. The killer left a twisted message of racial hate and sexual frustration before shooting his victims (pictured), who ranged in age from 18 to 67.
THE KILLER WAS their classmate.
Oregon college gunman Chris Harper Mercer was a student in the English class where he mercilessly murdered the instructor and eight undergrads just four days into the school year.
The deranged Mercer, 26, was enrolled in the Introduction to Expository Writing class taught by doomed Umpqua Community College assistant professor Lawrence Levine, the News-Review, a local newspaper, reported.
At 10:38 a.m. Thursday, armed with a half-dozen weapons, Harper opened fire on the innocents inside the Snyder Hall classroom.
Mercer emerged Friday as a twisted manchild whose quiet and creepy exterior hid a festering rage that exploded one day earlier in a fusillade of gunfire.
Friends and neighbors described him as a loner, an oddball and a bit of a nerd, a U.S. Army reject who lived with his domineering mom and rode a red bicycle well into his teens.
The demented gunman left a message of hate before launching the relentless attack that ended with his death in a gunfight with police.
Mercer surrendered a thumb drive holding racist rants and other vile material to an unidentified person at the school before opening fire, according to ABC News.
The shooter also handed the same person a sheaf of papers expanding on his hatred of black men and his sexual frustrations — a mini-manifesto of sorts. The details were not made public.
Authorities have yet to provide a motive for the shootings at the typically sleepy Roseburg, Ore., school, and few additional details were released at a Friday news conference.
But witnesses said Mercer asked his victims inside the writing class to tell him their religion, and then executed anyone who identified themselves as a Christian.
In an online profile, Mercer described “organized religion” as one of his dislikes.
Another of his Internet postings encouraged people to watch video showing the Aug. 26 murders of two Virginia TV station workers by a bitter former colleague.
“The more people you kill, the more you’re in the limelight,” wrote the mass killer-in-waiting.
Authorities recovered seven weapons from the Winchester, Ore., apartment where he lived with his mom — nurse Laurel Harper.
His British-born father, Ian Mercer, was reeling Friday from news of his son’s role in the slaughter: “I’m just as shocked as anybody at what happened.”
The couple were married in 1989, the year their son was born, and separated a year later, according to court records. After their 2006 California divorce, the mom was granted custody of their only child.
Mercer graduated in 2009 from the Switzer Learning Center in Torrance, Calif., a private school with a student body of people with learning disorders or emotional woes.
One year earlier, he enlisted in the U.S. Army — and flunked out of basic training after barely a month in 2008. Officials provided no details of his brief stint at Ft. Jackson, S.C.
A California neighbor recalls Mercer, already an adult, behaving like a brat in the family apartment.
“He was kind of like a child, so that’s why his tantrums would be kind of weird,” said Reina Webb, 19. “He’s a grown man. He shouldn’t be having a tantrum like a kid. That’s why I thought there was something — something was up.”
Authorities released the identities of his nine murder victims, a heart-breaking roster that ran the gamut from 18-year-old college freshmen to the 67-year-old Levine.
Jason Johnson, 34, had just returned to school after battling drug addiction.
Two younger victims had ties to the first responders rushing to the campus when the gunfire started. Treven Taylor Anspach, 20, was the son of a local firefighter, while freshman Rebecka Carnes, 18, was the niece of a paramedic.
Nine other people were wounded before Mercer was killed. The three most seriously hurt were all expected to survive — although one suffered serious damage, authorities said Friday.
The woman took a bullet to the head that entered the left side of her brain, resulting in lasting neurological problems, said Dr. Scott Russi of Peace Health Medical Center.
With the campus still a crime scene, Umpqua officials announced Friday that all classes
were canceled through next week.
“As you can imagine, there is a tremendous amount of information and evidence for them to sort through,” said Portland Fire and Rescue Lt. Rich Chatman, the investigation spokesman.
“We have a very large team of investigators and forensic teams trying to process all of the information.”
President Obama, one day after his seething response to the latest mass shooting,
showed a lot less anger Friday —
but took swipes at the National Rifle Association and Congress’ willful inaction on gun control.
“This will not change until the politics changes and the behavior of elected officials changes,” Obama said Friday. “So the main thing I’m going to do is talk about this . . . I’m going to politicize it.
“The reason that Congress does not support even the modest gun safety laws that we proposed is not because the majority of American people don’t support it. . . . It’s because of politics, because interest groups fund campaigns and feed people fear.”
The President ordered the U.S. flag at the White House and all federal public buildings flown at half-staff through Tuesday.
Oregon Gov. Kate Brown said the latest school slaughter raised the issue of what must be done to prevent the regular recurrence of the killings.
“It is going to keep happening until we decide we want them to stop,” she declared Friday.
“We must and we will do better to prevent these acts of senseless violence.”