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Umpqua Community College Shootings

Umpqua Community College Shootings13 posts

13 people were killed and more than 20 injured in a mass shooting at Umpqua Community College in Roseburg, Oregon, on October 1, 2015. The gunman, Chris Harper Mercer, was killed by police at the scene.

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15 Oct, 2015

Describes attack

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Mintz describes the attack in a Facebook post (link). He says he was in an adjacent classroom in Snyder Hall when everyone heard yelling. When they heard gunfire, Mintz held the door as everyone fled.

All of a sudden, the shooter opened the classroom door beside the door to my left, he leaned half of his torso out and started shooting as I turned toward him. He had a black shirt on, a shaved head, was tan and wearing glasses, he was so nonchalant through it all, like he was playing a video game and showed no emotion. The shots knocked me to the ground and felt like a truck hit me. He shot me again while I was on the ground and hit my finger, and said “that’s what you get for calling the cops” and I laid there, in a fetal position unable to move and responded “I didn’t call the cops man, they were already on the way.” He leaned further out of the classroom and tried to shoot my phone, I yelled “its my kids birthday man” he pointed the gun right at my face and then he retreated back into the class. I’m still confused at why he didn’t shoot me again.

I have to thank all the people who responded and everyone in the hospitals. THEY are the real heros, they saved us. I was shot five times, once in the left leg(breaking my femur) once in the right leg(breaking my tibia and fibula) once in the abdomen that exited my right hip, once at the top of my shoulder blade(it is still in my back, broke off part of my scapula and was about an inch from my aeorta) and finally my left finger(shattering the mid-joint of my ring finger.) Although I am not completely sure, I believe the caliber was a 38.

I am recovering well and thank everyone for their thoughts and prayers.

4 Oct, 2015

Father blames access to guns

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Mercer’s father, Ian Mercer, says he doesn’t know where his son got his weapons.

How on earth could he compile 13 guns? How could that happen? We talk about gun laws. We talk about gun control. Every time something like this happens, they talk about it and nothing gets done. I’m not trying to say that that’s to blame for what happened, but if Chris had not been able to get hold of 13 guns, this wouldn’t have happened…It has to change. How can it not? Even people that believe in the right to bear arms, what right do you have to take people’s lives? That’s what guns are, the killers. Simple as that. Simple as that. It’s black and white. What do you want a gun for?

On his son’s mental state:

Obviously, somebody who goes and kills nine people has to have some kind of issue. Whatever it is, let the police determine what they find.

Says armed teachers would have stopped killings

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At a campaign event in Franklin, Tennessee, Trump tells the audience he supports the Second Amendment.

By the way, it was a gun-free zone. Let me tell you, if you had a couple teachers with guns in that room, you would have been a hell of a lot better off…The Second Amendment guarantees a fundamental right that belongs to all law-abiding Americans. The Constitution doesn’t create that right — it ensures that the government can’t take it away…Our Founding Fathers knew and our Supreme Court has upheld that the the Second Amendment purpose is to guarantee our right to defend ourselves and our families. In fact, I have a license to carry in New York, can you believe that? Nobody knows that. Can you imagine? Somebody says, ‘There’s Trump, he’s easy pickings.’ What’d you’d say?”

Trump then mimics holding a gun with his hand.

2 Oct, 2015

Victims names released

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The Douglas County Sheriff’s Office releases the name of the victims: Professor Lawrence Levine of Glide, 67, Lucero Alcaraz of Roseburg, 19, Quinn Glen Cooper of Roseburg, 18, Kim Saltmarsh Dietz of Roseburg, 59, Lucas Eibel of Roseburg, 18, Jason Dale Johnson of Winston, 34, Sarena Dawn Moore of Myrtle Creek, 44, Treven Taylor Anspach of Sutherlin, 20, and Rebecka Ann Carnes of Myrtle Creek, 18.

Note left at scene

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Law enforcement officials say Mercer left a note at the scene of the killings. They say the multi-page typed note was a philosophical rant of someone who was mad at the world. The officials say Mercer lamented the fact that he did not have a girlfriend.

[He] felt the world was against him [and that he would be] welcomed in Hell and embraced by the devil. He wrote that he was ‘in a bad way. He was depressed, sullen. He said he had no life. He felt the world was against him.

Weapons purchased legally

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The ATF Bureau says thirteen weapons,  six from the school and seven from Mercer’s residence, were purchased legally. All of the weapons were traced to a federal firearms dealer. Seven of the weapons were purchased by the shooter or his family members in the last three years. Law enforcement also recovered a jacket with steel plates and additional magazines.

Umpqua killings ‘horrible’

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On Morning Joe, Trump says that while the Umpqua College killings are ‘horrible,’ it will be difficult to stop such events.

You’re going to have these things happen and it’s a horrible thing to behold, horrible…It’s not politically correct to say that, but you’re going to have difficulty and that will be for the next million years, there’s going to be difficulty and people are going to slip through the cracks. What are you going to do, institutionalize everybody?

Admired Roanoke shooter

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In a blog under the name Lithium_Love, an online identity linked to Mercer, he expresses admiration for Roanoke shooter Vester Flanagan.

People like him have nothing left to live for. On an interesting note, I have noticed that so many people like him are all alone and unknown, yet when they spill a little blood, the whole world knows who they are… A man who was known by no one, is now known by everyone. His face splashed across every screen, his name across the lips of every person on the planet, all in the course of one day. Seems the more people you kill, the more you’re in the limelight.

Shot seven times

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Family members say Mintz, and army veteran, was shot seven times while trying to save other students during the Umpqua killings. He was shot in the back, abdomen and hands, and has two broken legs, and has been in surgery since the shooting.

[He] tried to protect some people. We were told he did heroic things to protect some people…We’re not sure how his legs got broken. He was on the wrestling team and and he’s done cage-fighting so it does not surprise me that he would act heroically…It was a great, great shock … We’ve all been sitting on pins and needles and praying very hard.

A message on Mintz’s Facebook:

This is Chris’s friend, Chris asked me to thank everyone for their support, he is grateful and keeping our community and all victims in his thoughts.

Obama comments

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Obama offers his condolences to the families of those who were killed.

[America] will wrap everyone who’s grieving with our prayers and our love. [But] our thoughts and prayers are not enough…Somehow this has become routine. The reporting is routine. My response here at this podium ends up being routine. The conversation in the aftermath of it. We’ve become numb to this. We’ve talked about this after Columbine and Blacksburg, after Tucson, after Newtown, after Aurora, after Charleston. It cannot be this easy for somebody who wants to inflict harm on other people to get his or her hands on a gun…Each time this happens I am going to say that we can actually do something about it but we’re gonna have to change our laws. And this is not something I can do by myself.

10 killed, 20 injured in shooting

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10 people are killed by Mercer. and more than 20 others injured, in a shooting at Oregon’s Umpqua Community College. Mercer is also killed. The shooting starts in one building before the gunman moves to the school’s science building. Those killed and wounded are found in at least two classrooms. Three pistols and one rifle believed to have belonged to the suspect are recovered at the scene. A woman who claims to have a grandmother inside a writing class in Snyder Hall, where a portion the massacre unfolded, says Mercer targeted Christians.

The shooter was lining people up and asking if they were Christian. If they said yes, then they were shot in the head. If they said no, or didn’t answer, they were shot in the legs. My grandma just got to my house, and she was in the room. She wasn’t shot, but she is very upset.