Reuters/Roseburg, Oregon
The Oregon gunman who carried out an execution-style massacre at a college classroom had a cache of 13 weapons, body armour and ammunition, authorities said yesterday as they sought a motive for the bloodiest US mass shooting this year.
Celinez Nunez, assistant special agent of the US Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives disclosed the cache as details emerged about the suspect in Thursday’s rampage at Umpqua Community College in Roseburg, about 290km south of Portland.
Six of the guns, plus body armour and five magazines of ammunition were recovered from the campus where the gunman stormed into a classroom, killing nine people before he was shot dead by police, Nunez told a news conference.
Douglas County Sheriff John Hanlin declined to name the gunman, saying: “Again, you will not hear anyone from this law enforcement operation use his name. I continue to believe that those media and community members who publicise his name will only glorify his horrific actions. And eventually, this will only serve to inspire a future shooter.”
Law enforcement sources confirmed reports identifying the suspect as Chris Harper-Mercer, 26.
The gunman shot a professor and then ordered cowering students to stand up and state their religion before he shot them one by one, according to survivors’ accounts.
Another seven guns and a significant stockpile of ammunition were found at the apartment he shared with his mother in nearby Winchester, about 273km south of Portland, Nunez said.
Although authorities have disclosed scant information about the gunman, they appeared to be learning more about him and why he might have opened fire.
The shooter left behind a “multipage, hate-filled” statement in the classroom, according to a tweet from an NBC reporter, citing multiple law enforcement sources who were not identified. Citing unspecified sources, CNN said the statement showed animosity toward blacks.
Hanlin declined to comment when asked about the writings at a news conference.
Harper-Mercer, who identified himself on a blog post as “mixed race”, enlisted in the US Army and served for about a month in 2008 before being discharged for failing to meet administrative standards, military records showed.
A man identifying himself as the gunman’s father Ian Mercer told reporters outside his home in Los Angeles on Thursday night, “It’s been a devastating day, devastating for me and my family.”
At some point of his life, Harper-Mercer appears to have been sympathetic to the Irish Republican Army, a militant group that waged a violent campaign to drive the British from Northern Ireland. On an undated Myspace page, he posted photos of masked IRA gunmen carrying assault rifles.
Harper-Mercer was born in the United Kingdom and arrived in the US as a young boy, his stepsister Carmen Nesnick told CBS Los Angeles.
After the shooting, Mercy Medical Center in Roseburg received 10 patients, including one who died in the emergency room, hospital officials told reporters yesterday. Three were transported to other facilities because they needed a higher level of care, four required surgery, and two were treated and released. All were treated for gunshot wounds.
The violence, the latest in a series of high-profile mass killings across the country, has fuelled demands for stricter gun control in the US.
Not counting Thursday’s incident, 293 US mass shootings have been reported this year, according to the Mass Shooting Tracker website, a crowd-sourced database kept by anti-gun activists that logs events in which four or more people are shot.
Hours after Thursday’s shooting, a visibly frustrated President Barack Obama urged Americans to press their elected leaders to enact tougher firearms safety laws.
“Somehow this has become routine. The reporting is routine. My response here, at this podium, ends up being routine,” he said. “We’ve become numb to this.”
Gun control advocates say easy access to firearms is a major factor in the shooting epidemic, while the National Rifle Association and other pro-gun advocates say the Second Amendment of the US Constitution guarantees Americans the right to bear arms.
Oregon Governor Kate Brown declined in television interviews yesterday morning to discuss gun control, as did the sheriff, and both said it was a time for healing the community.
Emergency workers blocking access to Umpqua Community College in Roseburg yesterday.
