10 dead, 20 injured in shooting at Oregon community college

[Judy]

Watching Fox News I see pictures of all the students being marched out like they are POWs with hands in the air or behind their heads and then there are those green fatigue soldiers on site like we saw at Sandy Hook.

Those guys in green have no visible flags or insignia but are obviously military more than law enforcement. But why wear green soldier cammo in an urban conflict situation?

Who are those guys, what is their department and who is their boss?

There has to be a reason they sat on top of this guy's identity until after the daily press cycle had long expired.

What are they hiding here about Mercer? There is clearly something about the shooter they want to play down.

W

They're hiding something, that's for certain. They kidnapped these kids, hauled them on buses, 3,000 of them, to a secured detention area, forced them to march out of the buses, line up with their hands in the air, and submit to a search and seizure, in absolute violation of their 4th Amendment rights against such.

It's outrageous!

[JohnDoe2]

Watching Fox News I see pictures of all the students being marched out like they are POWs with hands in the air or behind their heads and then there are those green fatigue soldiers on site like we saw at Sandy Hook.

Those guys in green have no visible flags or insignia but are obviously military more than law enforcement. But why wear green soldier cammo in an urban conflict situation?

Who are those guys, what is their department and who is their boss? . . .

W

I don't know if I saw the same video you saw but I saw some guys that I think were part of the local sheriff's department, maybe SWAT TEAM or something, in camouflage uniforms. I didn't see any of them interviewed so not much info on them. Is that video still up somewhere?

[Judy]

http://www.cbsnews.com/news/umpqua-c...harper-mercer/

CBS/AP October 1, 2015, 11:11 PM

What we know about suspected Oregon shooter Chris Harper Mercer

A neighbor of the man who went on a deadly shooting rampage at an Oregon college, killing nine people, said he "seemed really unfriendly."

Bronte Hart lived below 26-year-old Chris Harper Mercer in the community of Winchester. She said Mercer would "sit by himself in the dark in the balcony with this little light."

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

Two law enforcement sources told CBS News Mercer was the man who opened fire at Umpqua Community College, killing nine people and wounding seven others. He died after exchanging gunfire with responding officers.

Law enforcement sources also told CBS News four guns -- a combination of pistols and a rifle -- were found at the scene of the shooting.

CBS Los Angeles reported Mercer had ties to the Los Angeles-area communities of Torrance and Tarzana.

Mercer's stepsister told the station he was born in England and traveled to the United States as a young boy. She said Mercer's father, who lives in Tarzana, married her mom and that the last time she spoke with Mercer was a year ago.

In Torrance, neighbors told CBS Los Angeles that Mercer lived there a few years ago and kept mostly to himself.

Posts on an online blog that appears to belong to Mercer reference multiple shootings, including one in Virginia in August that left a television news reporter and cameraman dead. The last upload on the blog was Wednesday. when a documentary about the Newtown shooting was posted.

In one post on the blog about Vester Flanagan, the man who killed the reporter and cameraman in Virginia, Mercer apparently wrote, "I have noticed that so many people like [Flanagan] are 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 like the more people you kill, the more you're in the limelight."

An online dating profile that appears to belong to Mercer lists his hobbies and interests as "Internet, killing zombies, movies, music, reading." ]Under ethnicity, it says "mixed race" and his relationship status says "single -- never married."

The profile also says he is currently in college and lives with his parents, is a Republican and not religious. It also says he doesn't smoke, drink or do drugs.

One of the groups on the site that he belongs to is called "Doesn't Like Organized Religion."

A witness to the shooting, Kortney Moore, told the Roseburg News-Review newspaper that she was in a writing class when a shot came through a window.

She said the gunman entered her classroom, told people to get on the ground and then asked people to stand up and state their religion before opening fire
.
© 2015 CBS Interactive Inc. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. The Associated Press contributed to this report.

[MW]

They're hiding something, that's for certain. They kidnapped these kids, hauled them on buses, 3,000 of them, to a secured detention area, forced them to march out of the buses, line up with their hands in the air, and submit to a search and seizure, in absolute violation of their 4th Amendment rights against such.

It's outrageous!

Please explain how this was a violation of their 4th Amendment rights. Are you not fully comprehending that this was the site of a mass murder? I'm sure the actions taken were standard operating procedure for such a situation. Like JohnDoe said, they had to make sure no one else had a weapon on their person, no one else was involved, etc. This is not a situation often faced by local law enforcement. The have to do whatever is necessary to secure the crime scene and make sure others weren't involved. Most facts of the situation aren't immediately known. They evolve during a comprehensive investigation. Anyway ..... that's how I see it.

[JohnDoe2]

CBS Los Angeles, citing Mercer's stepsister, reported that he was born in England and moved to the United States as a young man.


Police seal off Oregon college gunman's apartment, investigate possible motives

Published October 02, 2015 FoxNews.com




A neighbor of the man authorities say killed at least nine people at an Oregon community college Thursday told reporters the gunman "seemed really unfriendly."

Bronte Hart told the Associated Press she lived in the apartment below 26-year-old Christopher Harper Mercer in Winchester, Ore. Winchester is approximately five miles north of Roseburg, where Mercer opened fire in a classroom at Umpqua Community College, killing nine people before being killed in an exchange of gunfire with responding officers.

Hart said Mercer would often "sit by himself in the dark in the balcony with this little light." She added that a woman she believed to be Mercer's mother also lived upstairs and was "crying her eyes out" Thursday.

KPTV reported that investigators had sealed off the Winchester complex and had established a search perimeter. Officers at the scene were escorting residents to and from their apartments. A sheriff's deputy told a resident that there was no danger to the community and people living in the apartments around where Mercer lived were able to access their homes.

Authorities were attempting to establish a motive for Thursday's shooting. It was not immediately clear what, if any, connection Mercer had to the college, a two-year school with an enrollment of just over 3,000 students.

Law enforcement sources told Fox News that Mercer's name was being run through watchlists and his email history, phone logs, social media profiles and online history were being checked in an effort to rule out any links to international terrorism.

A law enforcement official told the Los Angeles Times that Mercer was armed with three handguns and an assault rifle when he carried out the shooting. The official did not know whether Mercer fired all the guns, or where and how he obtained them. The official added that Mercer formerly lived in Torrance, Calif, in Los Angeles County, and has relatives in the San Fernando Valley.

CBS Los Angeles, citing Mercer's stepsister, reported that he was born in England and moved to the United States as a young man.

The station reported that Mercer had identified Torrance as his hometown on a MySpace page that apparently belonged to him, as well as on a hiking website, All-Trails, in September 2012.

NBC Los Angeles reported that Mercer moved to Oregon in 2011.

According to the station, neighbors who lived in Torrance said they often saw Mercer wearing camouflage pants and boots.

"I don't know what to say," Carmen Nesnick of Tarzana, Calif., identified as Mercer's stepsister, told the station. "I'm shaking right now. He was a nice guy."

http://www.foxnews.com/us/2015/10/02.../?intcmp=hpbt1

[Judy]

Please explain how this was a violation of their 4th Amendment rights. Are you not fully comprehending that this was the site of a mass murder? I'm sure the actions taken were standard operating procedure for such a situation. Like JohnDoe said, they had to make sure no one else had a weapon on their person, no one else was involved, etc. This is not a situation often faced by local law enforcement. The have to do whatever is necessary to secure the crime scene and make sure others weren't involved. Most facts of the situation aren't immediately known. They evolve during a comprehensive investigation. Anyway ..... that's how I see it.

Oh puleeze. I have to explain the 4th Amendment to you?!

There was no probable cause to search these students. It's doesn't matter whether it's a mass murder, a single murder, a robbery or what it is. Government authorities do not have the right to kidnap you on a bus, haul you to a detention center, tell you to line up with arms raised and frisk, search or inspect you or your belongings without probable cause. There were witnesses to the shooting, there was 1 shooter, the police killed him, and sure, there may be some other suspect out there, but that doesn't give police the right to search en masse 3000 other students without probable cause relating to them individually.

No, they do not have to do whatever they think is "necessary". In fact, the 4th Amendment PROTECTS Americans from "whatever a cop thinks is necessary". This is not a police state, this is the United States of America where our laws and Constitution protect US citizens from being kidnapped by police, forced onto buses, hauled to detention areas, ordered around like POW's, and searched without probable cause.

I'm really shocked you didn't already know this.

[Judy]

To further demonstrate the absolute stupidity of this, what IF there were more shooters with guns and they were on the buses and at the detention center? Talk about fish in a barrel, they could have pulled their guns and shot hundreds of students in 30 seconds, while the police are checking shoe laces. The absolutely stupidity of violating the 4th Amendment in such an outlandish way en masse like this is paramount. I've never seen such an outlandish example of a 4th Amendment violation.

While they're violating the 4th Amendment en masse, they can't even get the body count right. We still don't know. CNN is still reporting 10 all night, after reporting 15 all afternoon, but CBS is reporting only 9 killed, as of a couple of hours ago.

Does anyone know for certain how many died and how many are injured? I'm not sure this 10 and 20 is right.

[JohnDoe2]

Nine victims and gunman dead in mass shooting at Ore. community college

By Joseph Hoyt, Mark Berman and Jerry Markon October 1 at 9:59 PM

ROSEBURG, Ore. — A rural community college became the site of America’s latest mass shooting on Thursday as a lone gunman burst into classrooms during the school day and mowed down terrified students before being shot dead in a firefight with police, authorities said.

Officials said nine people were killed, plus the gunman, and seven injured during the traumatic events at Umpqua Community College, about three hours south of Portland.

A federal law enforcement official identified the gunman as 26-year-old Chris Harper Mercer of nearby Winchester, Ore. On Thursday evening, Gloria Buhring, a resident of Winchester, said that her apartment complex was swarmed by police and that residents who left their homes earlier in the day could not return because much of the area was sealed off by police tape.

Mercer was described as wearing a dark shirt and jeans and spewing bullets from what appeared to be three pistols and possibly a semiautomatic rifle.

Students told of hiding between desks and huddling in darkness as the shooter methodically sought out victims. Some students who are military veterans guarded the doors, which did not lock, in case the shooter tried to enter.

Map of where college shooting occurred, timeline of eventsVIEW GRAPHIC

“There’s a shooter! Run! Run! Get out of there!” groups of students screamed as they ran out of Snyder Hall, where the rampage started, according to Kenneth Ungerman, 25, a student at the college. Ungerman said he and a National Guard recruiter sought cover underneath his Jeep, then rolled out from under it “and took off,” he said.

Jasmyne Davis, 19, was in class when the gunfire began. She said she heard one gunshot, followed by a 30-second pause, an argument and eight more shots from the classroom next door.

“Close the door!” yelled a female classmate who ran out of the classroom, was shot in the arm and fell back into the room.

[The worst school shootings in American history]

As authorities frantically tried to secure the campus and sort out what happened, they initially provided conflicting accounts of casualties. Douglas County Sheriff John Hanlin confirmed at an afternoon news conference that 10 people had been killed and seven injured, with the gunman killed in an exchange of fire with police. Hanlin said authorities would not identify the victims for at least a day, possibly two. The FBI later clarified that the 10 fatalities included the gunman.

Hanlin said authorities were not ready to release any information about a possible motive. The News-Review newspaper in Douglas County quoted a student as saying the gunman had asked people their religion before opening fire.
The rampage was the latest in a series of mass shootings that have produced national revulsion, even as they have left Republicans and Democrats divided over whether such violence should lead to stricter gun laws. Thursday’s shootings came three months after nine people were gunned down at a historic African American church in Charleston, S.C.

School shootings have figured prominently in this series of tragedies, including the 1999 massacre at Columbine High School in Colorado, the 2007 Virginia Tech shootings and the deaths of 20 children in 2012 at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Conn.

Scenes from campus of deadly shooting at Oregon college


View Photos
Multiple casualties were reported at Umpqua Community College in Roseburg, Ore., authorities said.


In Washington, a visibly frustrated President Obama offered prayers for the victims and their families and quickly pivoted to repeat his call for stricter gun-safety laws, something he has done throughout his presidency to no avail.

“Each time we see one of these mass shootings, our thoughts and prayers are not enough,” he said. “It’s not enough. It does not capture the heartache and grief and anger that we should feel. It does nothing to prevent this carnage from being inflicted someplace else in America.”

Yet again, the media broadcast images of ambulances ferrying victims to hospitals, and students reported on social media that they had been trapped inside classrooms.

Federal authorities joined officials from Oregon in swarming the rural community college. Agents from the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives arrived in the morning, and additional agents were being dispatched. The FBI field office in Portland also said it was sending agents.

Four guns were recovered from the crime scene, including three pistols and a type of semiautomatic rifle, people familiar with the investigation said. They declined to be more specific.

Officials at Mercy Medical Center in Roseburg said the hospital had received 10 patients from the shooting.

PeaceHealth Sacred Heart Medical Center at RiverBend, a hospital about 70 miles north of the school, said it had three female patients, one in critical condition and the other two in serious condition.

The school will be closed Friday, with its campus remaining an active crime scene, interim president Rita Cavin said at a news conference Thursday. “Today was the saddest day in the history of the college,” she said.

Umpqua, one of 17 community colleges in Oregon, has about 2,000 students and about 200 full- and part-time faculty members. Federal data suggests Umpqua is a quiet campus; the only crimes reported there in recent years have been an occasional burglary and, in 2013, an aggravated assault.

Oregon Gov. Kate Brown (D) ordered flags flown at half-staff through sunset Friday. “Today is heartbreaking for Umpqua Community College, the greater Roseburg community, and all of Ore*gon,” Brown said in a statement.

The shooting was first reported before 10:40 a.m. local time (1:40 p.m. Eastern), according to the sheriff’s office, which said students and faculty members were evacuated from campus to the county’s fairgrounds.

Danny Medak, 20, a basketball player at Umpqua, said he heard a loud noise, a pause and then a round of gunshots.

Added Ryan Rundell, 18: “I’ve lived in Douglas County my whole life and I never thought I’d see anything like this.’’

Savannah Nardli was driving to campus to meet her close friends Cheyeanne Fitzgerald and Anastasia Boylan when she got a call from another classmate who told her there had been a shooting on campus. She turned back. “I was like, ‘I’m going home,’ ” she said. “I got the hell out of town.”

Nardli tried Fitzgerald’s cellphone repeatedly but got no answer. So she called Boylan, who picked up. “She said Cheye*anne was shot and that she was bleeding,” said Nardli, 18, who is a distant cousin of Fitzgerald.

McCrae Kittelman, 17, was in the Educational Skills Building, a large open tutoring center, doing homework when his math teacher, Mike Matteo, came running in. It was 10:40 a.m.

“Drop everything you’re doing and get in the back room right now,” Matteo ordered the students.

Everyone — about 20 students and three or four teachers — rushed to a back room where teachers have their offices and got in the one the farthest back. They turned off the lights.

“He told us to crouch down next to anything we could, to lay and sit there quietly,” Kittelman recalled. “Don’t make any movement or sound.”

https://www.washingtonpost.com/natio...eac_story.html

[Judy]

Thank you, JohnDoe2. It's 10 dead counting the shooter.

[Judy]

BREAKING CNN!

A girl in the room where the others were killed who was shot but is alive and going into surgery said the shooter only had a hand-gun, no long gun, no AK 47, just a hand-gun and he would change the bullet cartridge when he ran out of bullets, and reload. One hand-gun, no long-gun. If they found a long-gun, it was planted. Remember the Newtown Shooting? Same thing. That AK 47 was planted. The man's daughter is telling the story because he got to talk with her before she went into surgery. She was shot when he first entered the room, blasting the room to get their attention, shot the teacher in the head, and then went 1 on 1 to ask if you're a Christian. The man's daughter was shot during the initial splay and when he got to her laying on the floor and asked her to get up, she didn't move, played dead and he moved on to the next one. Took a long time, the father says which he doesn't understand why help couldn't have been there sooner.