Oregon Gunman Singled out Christians for Killing during Rampage

[stargazer]

ROSEBURG, Ore. —Investigators including cyber-experts and hate crime specialists peered Friday into the life of a 26-year-old gunman whose massacre across an Oregon campus may have been driven by religious rage and a fascination with the twisted notoriety of high-profile killers.

 

What is known so far about the attacker — identified by a U.S. law enforcement official as Chris Harper Mercer â€” appear only as loose strands that suggested an interest in firearms and the infamy gained by mass shooters.

 

Witnesses also said he seemed to seek specific revenge against Christians, and police examined Web posts that hinted of wider antipathy toward organized faith.

But authorities still struggled to build a clearer picture at what drove the California-raised Mercer to stalk rural Umpqua Community College — armed with three pistols and a semiautomatic rifle — and methodically pick off students and professors Thursday on the fourth day of the fall semester.

 

At the end, nine people were dead, plus Mercer, and the college joined the mournful roster of America’s mass shooting sites.

 

The transition from the anonymity of “before†to the notoriety of “after†took just about 10 terrifying minutes, during which the shooter strode through a school building armed with three pistols and a semiautomatic rifle. Clad in a dark shirt and jeans, driven by a motive that is still unknown, he methodically sprayed bullets into classrooms full of students, who hid behind desks and desperately tried to block doors that didn’t lock.

In one classroom, he appeared to single out Christian students for killing, according to witness Anastasia Boylan.

 

“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 his daughter’s account while she underwent surgery to treat a gunshot to her spine.

“And then he shot and killed them.â€

 

Another account came from Autumn Vicari, who described to NBC News what her brother J.J. witnessed in the room where the shootings occurred. According to NBC: â€œVicari said at one point the shooter told people to stand up before asking whether they were Christian or not. Vicari’s brother told her that anyone who responded ‘yes’ was shot in the head. If they said ‘other’ or didn’t answer, they were shot elsewhere in the body, usually the leg.â€

The violence stopped only after authorities exchanged gunfire with Mercer. At 10:47 a.m. local time Thursday, the end was announced over the police scanner: The suspect was down.

The scraps of information about Mercer uncovered so far did not fit together easily and much remained unconfirmed, including reports that he had forecast some act of violence in Oregon in a dark corner of the Internet known as 4chan, a report being investigated by federal authorities, according to the New York Times. But a murky portrait was emerging of a quiet and withdrawn young man who struggled to connect with other people, instead seeking attention online, and who harbored anger against organized religion.

 

Thursday’s 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. The campus shootings came three months after nine people were gunned down at a historic African American church in Charleston, S.C.

One group that tracks gun violence, the Mass Shooting Tracker, said it was the 294th death or injury from a shooting involving four or more people in the United States this year — a rate of more than one victim a day.

 

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.

 

 

 

source: Washinton Post

[Mischo]

This is terrible. No person should ever fear for their life because they believe in certain faiths

I hope all the killed one are better place :'c

 

America need to fix its gun laws, it has gotten way overhand

[Stepkdramafan226]

That is disgusting, leave people to have the religion they want. I feel so bad for the families. 

[mochi]

what a sicko, hope he burns in hell. condolences to the families of the ones that passed, this is devastating

[abra]

If you're so upset with christianity go pee on a church or something

 

don't kill people

[oh-gumdrop]

This is terrible. No person should ever fear for their life because they believe in certain faiths

I hope all the killed one are better place :'c

America need to fix its gun laws, it has gotten way overhand

Theyre too far gone, it really cant be helped at this point.

[Mango]

"For the 40th time this year, the 141st time since the Sandy Hook massacre, a gunman had opened fire in a school."

 

 

Something really needs to be done! 

[North and South]

Disgusting fuck. Why does the US NOT have better gun control laws. Like seriously the second amendment is all fine and dandy, but there should be stringer legislation because the current system does not work. It appalls me how members of Congress are essentially being given blood money from the NRA to not do any legitimate change about this issue; while more innocents die in what is supposed to be a civilized country. People shouldn't have to go to schools under the fear that it will be shot up. Schools shouldn't have to treat this as an impending fear because of how frequent it is.

 

What annoys me about the media coverage though is that we can now probably tell he's not a person of colour. Oh no, this is just "revenge" killings. If this person had been Muslim, looked like a Muslim, or had mentioned religion in the form of Islam: this would have immediately been labeled a terrorist attack. 

[shimmering]

if 20 children being shot and killed didn't make america wake the fuck up then nothing will. 

[Yerowan]

Disgusting fuck. Why does the US NOT have better gun control laws. Like seriously the second amendment is all fine and dandy, but there should be stringer legislation because the current system does not work. It appalls me how members of Congress are essentially being given blood money from the NRA to not do any legitimate change about this issue; while more innocents die in what is supposed to be a civilized country. People shouldn't have to go to schools under the fear that it will be shot up. Schools shouldn't have to treat this as an impending fear because of how frequent it is.

 

What annoys me about the media coverage though is that we can now probably tell he's not a person of colour. Oh no, this is just "revenge" killings. If this person had been Muslim, looked like a Muslim, or had mentioned religion in the form of Islam: this would have immediately been labeled a terrorist attack. 

 

Yep. Money is way too deeply entwined with american politics. A few politicians occasionally talk about getting money out of politics, but at this point they'd have to get Citizens United overturned and then overhaul a system that's immensely profitable to people in congress (who would be the ones voting on said system overhaul) to also get rid of or limit lobbying. People are not known to vote in favor of reducing their own income. I don't see a way out.

[bbangjyjbapshineelove]

This is so extra. I don't understand what would drive him to do such a thing.

 

Although, the authorities talking about 'building a clearer picture' seem like armchair psychologists trying to find reasons that put their reactionary hearts at ease.

 

Imho, they are no better than us - trying to read minds and explain the unexplainable.

[North and South]

Yep. Money is way too deeply entwined with american politics. A few politicians occasionally talk about getting money out of politics, but at this point they'd have to get Citizens United overturned and then overhaul a system that's immensely profitable to people in congress (who would be the ones voting on said system overhaul) to also get rid of or limit lobbying. People are not known to vote in favor of reducing their own income. I don't see a way out.

 

What's interesting is that American citizens from all demographics and both parties were unanimously against the Citizens United Act. Like this isn't a one party vs another party issue, this is a systemic problem is American politics overall; which is scary. Congress, the so called representative of the people, cannot act in the people's interest. What's surprising as well is that the Supreme Court upheld the act, (I'm not sure if they made a deliberation about the Patriot Act either because that is blatantly unconstitutional) which may point to the court systems also being corrupted as well

[SEWER RAT]

Tired of these idiot white guys always getting the sympathetic 'loner' rhetoric, stfu, idc about sympathising with a psychopath ass bitch. Had this been a PoC we all know what the reaction would have been like.

[Gyujin]

Sad that this is still happening so often...