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| Oregon killings: US reels from another school shooting – live updates | Oregon killings: US reels from another school shooting – live updates |
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| 1.18pm BST13:18 | |
| Community members turned out in droves on Thursday night to support each other during the candlelight vigil held in Stewart Park in Roseburg, Oregon, following a tragic mass shooting, reports Ben Kendall. | |
| Clutching close to her partner, Umpqua Community College freshman Alicia Sparks held a candle in solidarity to those who endured the terrifying ordeal. | |
| “I was in the science hall ... and everybody heard something, but wasn’t sure what it was and then we got an email that there was a possible shooter on campus,” Sparks said. | |
| Sparks and her classmates waited out the lockdown in the center of the hall, where there are no windows. | |
| UCC physics major Mark Hamill was in the gym during the shooting. | |
| “I went over to the office to ask the officials there: ‘Is this for real? Is there really an active shooter?’ Then, when I walked out ... I heard three, four, five shots. Sounds like firecrackers,” Hamill said. | |
| Hamill waited out the lockdown in the gym with his classmates in the dark behind closed doors. | |
| Both students were relieved by law enforcement and escorted to the vehicles taking the students off campus. | |
| Oregon governor Kate Brown addressed those in attendance in Stewart Park as did pastors and UCC student veterans, who offered their support and solidarity. | |
| The crowd chanted: “UCC, I am UCC, we are UCC, I graduated from UCC.” The vigil raised their candles in unison. Taps, the US military funeral piece, was played by a lone trumpet on stage followed by a bagpipe. | |
| The Red Cross ran a canteen table distributing free refreshments to all at the vigil, as well as providing support to those in need. | |
| Carol Gross, a disaster mental health volunteer with the Red Cross, said: “We have a cadre of licensed professional mental health people who respond to distress and do exactly what we’re doing here which is provide support to the community and to individuals. | |
| “I’ve come to realize that regardless of how many people are affected, it all boils down to the individual and the disaster that each individual feel in the own heart, in their own life.” | |
| 1.13pm BST13:13 | |
| Hours after the shooting on Thursday night, community members held a vigil at Stewart Park, about 10 miles from Umpqua community college. | |
| Local news channel KATU was on the scene for the vigil: | |
| Benjamin Ray Hodges told KATU News he drove 30 miles from his home in “the sticks” of the Coast Range to Roseburg to spread peace. He sat on the grass during the vigil holding his family’s American flag. | |
| “Even far out in the sticks we still feel the spirit of the town and remorse (for) the ones that are dead,” he said. | |
| Video of #UCCschooting vigil #LiveOnK2 pic.twitter.com/HSrmzkVvkh | |
| 12.59pm BST12:59 | |
| In the past three years, there have been 994 mass gun attacks in the US. | |
| And the Umpqua shooting is not the first one to occur this week. Two mass gun attacks happened on Monday and Tuesday in Chicago during a 15 hour-hour period where 14 people were shot, six fatally. | |
| My colleague Nicky Woolf has more on these numbers: | |
| America’s gun problem goes deeper still: on the day of the Newtown shooting, many noted that if that had been the only shooting that day, the day’s death toll from gun violence would have been below the US average. | |
| That was even more true on Thursday. The number of firearm homicides in 2013, the last year for which the Center for Disease Control (CDC) has statistics, was 11,208. The year before Sandy Hook, it was 107 fewer than that. | |
| That’s just intentional homicides. Firearms are the cause of death for more than 33,000 people in America every year, according to the CDC; a number that includes both accidental discharge, murder and suicides, which are on the increase, especially in states with lax gun-control laws, according to the New England Journal of Medicine. | |
| 12.41pm BST12:41 | 12.41pm BST12:41 |
| Douglas county sheriff John Hanlin just spoke on CNN, where reporter Chris Cuomo pressed him on the issue of gun control. Hanlin had previously said that gun control “is not the answer” for preventing events such as school shootings. | |
| “My position has not changed,” Hanlin said towards the end of a tense interview. | “My position has not changed,” Hanlin said towards the end of a tense interview. |
| During the interview, Cuomo repeatedly questioned Hanlin on how such an event could be prevented in the future. | During the interview, Cuomo repeatedly questioned Hanlin on how such an event could be prevented in the future. |
| “The debate and discussion over firearms is going to occur; now is not the time,” said Hanlin. “We want to focus on the investigation.” | |
| More importantly, Hanlin said, families of the victims needed space to grieve. | |
| But Cuomo, who said he had reported on too many mass shootings, would not relent. | But Cuomo, who said he had reported on too many mass shootings, would not relent. |
| “Again, Chris, I want to stay focused on completing this investigation and focus on the families of this victims,” Hanlin replied. | |
| The sheriff said he would contribute to discussions about gun violence “at a later time”. | The sheriff said he would contribute to discussions about gun violence “at a later time”. |
| Updated at 12.46pm BST | |
| 11.44am BST11:44 | 11.44am BST11:44 |
| Summary | Summary |
| Welcome to our continuing live coverage of the aftermath of the latest mass shooting in the US. You can see our previous live blog for how news of the killings unfolded. This blog will focus on the political fallout and further details about the shooter as they emerge. | Welcome to our continuing live coverage of the aftermath of the latest mass shooting in the US. You can see our previous live blog for how news of the killings unfolded. This blog will focus on the political fallout and further details about the shooter as they emerge. |
| Here’s what we know so far: | Here’s what we know so far: |
| What happened, when and where? | What happened, when and where? |
| A gunman killed as many as nine people and wounded seven more at a community college in Oregon before he was killed. Emergency services first received a report of shots fired on the Umpqua Community College campus in the rural town of Roseburg at about 10.38am. The community college, which mostly provides adult education to students in their late 20s, has about 3,000 registered students but only a few hundred attend full-time. | A gunman killed as many as nine people and wounded seven more at a community college in Oregon before he was killed. Emergency services first received a report of shots fired on the Umpqua Community College campus in the rural town of Roseburg at about 10.38am. The community college, which mostly provides adult education to students in their late 20s, has about 3,000 registered students but only a few hundred attend full-time. |
| Who is the gunman? | Who is the gunman? |
| The killer has been named as 26-year-old Chris Harper Mercer, who lived near the college in an apartment complex in Winchester with his mother. Mercer was born in the UK before moving to the US at a young age. He was the son of Ian Bernard Mercer, a restaurant manager who lives in Tarzana, California, and Laurel Margaret Harper. Ian Mercer, said he was “just as shocked as everybody” at his son’s actions. Although little more is known about Mercer, he appears to have left an online footprint that hints at interest in mass shootings as well as apparent support for the IRA. A neighbour, Bronte Hart, said he lived upstairs and would “sit by himself in the dark in the balcony with this little light”. Mercer was cornered in a hall by a police officer who reported exchanging shots with the man. | The killer has been named as 26-year-old Chris Harper Mercer, who lived near the college in an apartment complex in Winchester with his mother. Mercer was born in the UK before moving to the US at a young age. He was the son of Ian Bernard Mercer, a restaurant manager who lives in Tarzana, California, and Laurel Margaret Harper. Ian Mercer, said he was “just as shocked as everybody” at his son’s actions. Although little more is known about Mercer, he appears to have left an online footprint that hints at interest in mass shootings as well as apparent support for the IRA. A neighbour, Bronte Hart, said he lived upstairs and would “sit by himself in the dark in the balcony with this little light”. Mercer was cornered in a hall by a police officer who reported exchanging shots with the man. |
| How did this happen? | How did this happen? |
| There are scant details about the attacks as they unfolded. Eyewitnesses have told reporters that Mercer fired through the doors and windows of a classroom before making his way through the 16-building campus. CNN reported that four guns were recovered at the scene of the killings. Kortney Moore, 18, told the News Review in Roseburg she was in her writing class when a bullet came through a window and hit her teacher in the head. She said Mercer then ordered students to stand. It was not clear whether he had been a student at Umpqua college although a listing from a Noel Coward play staged there had his name posted as a production assistant. | There are scant details about the attacks as they unfolded. Eyewitnesses have told reporters that Mercer fired through the doors and windows of a classroom before making his way through the 16-building campus. CNN reported that four guns were recovered at the scene of the killings. Kortney Moore, 18, told the News Review in Roseburg she was in her writing class when a bullet came through a window and hit her teacher in the head. She said Mercer then ordered students to stand. It was not clear whether he had been a student at Umpqua college although a listing from a Noel Coward play staged there had his name posted as a production assistant. |
| Did the gunman have a motive? | Did the gunman have a motive? |
| Investigators are focusing on reports from survivors that Mercer told students to state their religion before he opened fire. The police were also looking at reports that hours before the attack he posted messages on an internet chat site warning people to stay away. | Investigators are focusing on reports from survivors that Mercer told students to state their religion before he opened fire. The police were also looking at reports that hours before the attack he posted messages on an internet chat site warning people to stay away. |
| How have the local police reacted? | How have the local police reacted? |
| The Douglas County sheriff, John Hanlin, refused to identify the shooter. “I will not give him the credit he probably sought with this horrific and cowardly act,” said Hanlin. “You will never hear me mention his name.” It also emerged that Hanlin has lobbied the White House against restrictions on gun ownership. | The Douglas County sheriff, John Hanlin, refused to identify the shooter. “I will not give him the credit he probably sought with this horrific and cowardly act,” said Hanlin. “You will never hear me mention his name.” It also emerged that Hanlin has lobbied the White House against restrictions on gun ownership. |
| What’s been the political reaction? | What’s been the political reaction? |
| President Barack Obama, clearly agitated at making his 15th statement on shootings since taking office, said the country was numbed by the repeated massacres. He urged individuals to lobby the authorities to implement “common-sense gun laws”. He said: | President Barack Obama, clearly agitated at making his 15th statement on shootings since taking office, said the country was numbed by the repeated massacres. He urged individuals to lobby the authorities to implement “common-sense gun laws”. He said: |
| “This is something we should politicise ... We spend over a trillion dollars, and pass countless laws, and devote entire agencies to preventing terrorist attacks on our soil, and rightfully so. And yet, we have a Congress that explicitly blocks us from even collecting data on how we could potentially reduce gun deaths. How can that be?” | “This is something we should politicise ... We spend over a trillion dollars, and pass countless laws, and devote entire agencies to preventing terrorist attacks on our soil, and rightfully so. And yet, we have a Congress that explicitly blocks us from even collecting data on how we could potentially reduce gun deaths. How can that be?” |