One of the Umpqua college shooting victims's father says that the gunman who opened fire at Oregon's Umpqua Community College singled out Christians.
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| Father of Umpqua college shooting victim: Gunman singled out Christians |
"I've been waiting to do this for years," the gunman told the professor teaching the class. He shot him point blank, Boylan recounted.
Others were hit too, she told her family.
Everyone in the classroom dropped to the ground.
The gunman, while reloading his handgun, ordered the students to stand up and asked if they were Christians, Boylan told her family.
"And they would stand up and he said, 'Good, because you're a Christian, you're going to see God in just about one second,'" Boylan's father, Stacy, told CNN, relaying her account.
"And then he shot and killed them."
Boylan, 18, was hit in the back by a bullet that traveled down her spine. While she lay bleeding on the floor, the gunman called out to her, "Hey you, blond woman," her mother said.
The gunman
The massacre on the Umpqua campus Thursday left nine people dead and nine wounded. The gunman also died, although it's unclear whether he was shot by police or committed suicide.
Speaking Friday morning on CNN's "New Day," Douglas County Sheriff John Hanlin said he had not heard anything about the gunman asking victims about their religion.
He also wouldn't talk about why the shooting happened, saying, "It's really too early to tell what the motive was."
Hanlin reiterated that he will not officially identify the gunman, leaving that task to the state medical examiner's office.
"I don't want to glorify the shooter, I don't want to glorify his name, I don't want to glorify his cause,"Hanlin said. "I'm refusing to state his name. ... You won't hear his name from me or this investigation."
Multiple law enforcement officials familiar with the investigation identified the gunman as Chris Harper Mercer, 26.
One law enforcement official said the shooter had body armor with him and was heavily armed, with a large amount of ammunition -- enough for a prolonged gunfight. Authorities recovered three pistols and one rifle at the scene, one official said.
Authorities credited a quick response by law enforcement for keeping the death toll from climbing.
The motive
The gunman's death means officials will never definitively know what compelled him to carry out the attack at the Roseburg campus, about 180 miles south of Portland.
"He was a little odd, like sensitive to things," said Rebecca Miles, who took a theater class with Mercer.
Throughout Thursday night, investigators talked to the gunman's family and neighbors to try to piece together the puzzle.
"Obviously it's been a devastating day," Mercer's father, Ian, told reporters outside his house in Tarzana, California. "Devastating for me and my family."
Bronte Hart, who lives in the building where Mercer lived, said the man 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 lived with him and was "crying her eyes out" Thursday.
Another neighbor, Steven Fisher, described him as "skittish."
"His demeanor, the way he moved, always looking around," Fisher said. "I got a bad vibe from him."
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