Oregon shooting: Gunman asked victims their religion before killing them and posted online 'the more you kill, the more you're in the limelight'

Gunman Chris Harper Mercer born in UK and travelled to the United States as a young boy, says stepsister
Gunman: Harper Mercer posted pictures online of himself posing with guns
Myspace
Hannah Al-Othman2 October 2015

The gunman who slaughtered at least nine people at a rural US college has been named by police as a 26-year-old who had posted a series of disturbing messages about other recent massacres.

Chris Harper Mercer has been identified by authorities as the killer in the shooting in the small town of Roseburg, Oregon.

A page on social networking site Myspace in Mercer’s name features disturbing pictures of masked gunmen, and numberous references to the Irish Republican Army, including a picture of the front page of a the Irish republican newspaper An Phoblacht, bearing the headline “British Army Could Not Defeat IRA”.

Ahead of the atrocity, a post on the website 4chan included a photo of a crudely drawn frog with a gun, warning other users not to go to school on Thursday in the region.

Newspaper: Harper Mercer posted a picture of this newspaper to MySpace
Myspace

In a blog post hosted on a torrent site about Vester Flanagan, who shot two journalists live on air in late August, he reportedly wrote: "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 your're [sic] in the limelight."

Hannah Miles, center, is reunited with her sister Hailey Miles, left, and father Gary Miles, right
AP

Mercer opened fire inside a classroom, killing a teacher with a shot to the head before telling students to get on the floor.

He told people to stand up and state their religion before opening fire.

Threatening: Harper Mercer warned of violence on 4Chan
4Chan

Students have described cowering in terror until police arrived.

Hannah Miles, 19, was in her writing class when her teacher got a call from security saying the school was in lockdown. The school has a single unarmed security guard.

She heard gunshots from a neighbouring classroom.

Police search students outside Umpqua Community College in Roseburg
AP

She said that huddled together in the locked classroom, the students and teacher heard a footsteps outside and a man's voice call out to them: "Come on out, come on out." They remained quiet and did not open the door.

Police soon arrived, and after students were convinced that it was indeed officers, they opened the door.

"It was like a huge burden had been lifted," she said. "A huge sigh of relief that we were going to be OK."

The gunman was found dead after a gun battle with police. It was not clear if he was killed by the authorities or whether he took his own life.

"It's been a terrible day. Certainly this is a huge shock to our community," said Douglas County Sheriff John Hanlin.

CBS Los Angeles reported that Mercer's stepsister had told the station he was born in the United Kingdom and travelled to the United States as a young boy.

Carmen Nesnick, 26, said: "I'm actually still shaking and my mom is in there crying. I don't know what to do."

Chris Harper Mercer: This picture was posted to his dating page on Spiritual Passions
Spiritual Passions

Mercer had been living at an apartment complex in nearby Winchester. Yellow police tape surrounded the building last night.

A neighbour, Bronte Hart, said Mercer would "sit by himself in the dark in the balcony with this little light".

She said a woman she believed to be Mercer's mother also lived upstairs and was "crying her eyes out."

Emergency response: paramedics at the college in Oregon
Aaron Yost/Roseburg News-Review via AP

The sheriff said 10 people were dead and seven wounded. An FBI spokeswoman said the gunman was included in that number.

Hours after the attack, president Barack Obama spoke to reporters at the White House, saying the US is becoming numb to mass shootings and that the shooters have "sickness" in their minds.

Repeating his support for tighter gun-control measures, the president said thoughts and prayers are no longer enough in such situations because they do nothing to stop similar attacks from happening a few weeks or months later.

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