Oregon college shootings: witnesses recall horror as Obama calls for action

Harrowing details have begun to emerge after at least nine people were killed at an Oregon community college by a gunman who witnesses said had demanded to know students’ religion before shooting them.

A visibly frustrated Barack Obama reacted to the 45th school shooting to take place in the US this year by telling Americans that “somehow this has become routine”.


The killer, who was fatally shot in a gun battle with police following the rampage, has been named as Chris Harper Mercer, 26, who lived near Umpqua college, in the rural town of Roseburg.

The father of Anastasia Boylan, an 18-year-old student who was in class when Mercer came in shooting, said she survived by playing dead.

“[Mercer] came in and there was gunfire immediately and he scattered the room. From what I understood from what she said was he shot the professor point blank, one shot killed him,” Stacey Boylan told CNN.

“Others had been injured and then this man had enough time – I don’t know how much time elapsed – he was able to stand there and start asking people one by one what their religion was.

“‘Are you a Christian?’ he would ask them, and ‘if you are a Christian then stand up’ and they would stand up. He’d say ‘because you are a Christian you’re going to see God in about one second’ and then he shot and killed them. And he kept going down the line doing this to people.”

Hannah Miles, a 19-year-old freshman who had been in her writing class when her teacher got a call from security saying the school was in lockdown, said she heard gunshots from a neighbouring classroom.

“There was a huge pop. It sounded like a ruler smacking against a chalkboard. Everyone jumped and we didn’t know what was going on. Then there was another one,” Miles told reporters. She was eventually evacuated by police from the locked classroom.


The picture emerging of Mercer is of a killer who had an interest in mass shootings, having reportedly recently posted on a blog about a gunman who killed two US journalists live on air in August. He described Vester Flanagan as a man who “wanted the world to see his actions” before adding: “Seems the more people you kill, the more you’re in the limelight.”

Mercer is thought to have been born in England before moving to the US as a young boy. Neighbours in Winchester said he lived in an apartment with his African-American mother, a nurse, and that he loved target shooting and seemed to carry around a black case with a gun inside.

His father, Ian Mercer, said he was “just as shocked as everybody” at his son’s actions. Speaking from his home in the US, he told reporters: “I’ve just been talking to the police and the FBI and all the details I have right now is what you guys [reporters] have already.

“I can’t answer any questions right now, I don’t want to answer any questions right now. It’s been a devastating day, devastating for me and my family. Shocked is all I can say.”


Speaking at the White House, Obama said: “We are not the only country on Earth that has people with mental illnesses or who want to do harm to other people. We are the only advanced country on earth that sees these kinds of mass shootings every few months.”

The shooting on the campus in the former timber town 180 miles south of Portland took place on the the first week of classes at the community college, which has about 3,000 students.


Bron: The guardian, 2/10/2015, http://www.theguardian.com/world/20...alls-for-action


Mijn mening:Vooraleerst is het heel erg wat deze mensen moesten meemaken. Mensen voelen zich niet meer vertrouwd in eigen omgeving en hebben schrik om hun eigen geloof te tonen. Want op basis van hun religie heeft de dader beslist hun al dan niet neer te schieten. Uit de reactie, die de dader eerder al postte over iemand die 2 journalisten had doodgeschoten, bleek dat hij interesse had in 'mass shooting'. Ik vind dat men deze mensen extra in de gaten moet houden, zeker als er de laatste tijd zo veel sprake is van schietpartijen. Vooral ook omdat men in Amerika heel makkelijk aan wapens kan geraken. Obama zou al heel wat kunnen doen door een verbod te leggen op wapenbezit.