A shooting occurred on October 1, 2015, at the Umpqua Community College campus near Roseburg, Oregon, United States.
He forced this student to sit at the back of the classroom and watch as he continued shooting with two handguns (a Glock 19 and a Taurus PT24/7).
[4][14] Roseburg Police Sergeant Joe Kaney and Detective Todd Spingath (who were in plainclothes at the time of the shooting) were the first to respond to the scene.
By some accounts, the shooter asked his victims about their religion before killing them, but others point out that his rage was not limited to religious matters and stressed his mental health history.
[17][31] Almost four hours after the shooting, Laurel Mercer was interviewed by Oregon State Police detectives, but the content was not released until September 13, 2017.
[37][38] Among the wounded was Chris Mintz, a U.S. Army veteran who was studying fitness training at the college,[39] who responded when he heard screams coming from an adjacent classroom.
[40] At a press conference held on October 3, Douglas County Sheriff John Hanlin thanked Mintz for his actions.
Christopher Sean "Chris" Harper-Mercer[37] (July 26, 1989 – October 1, 2015) was enrolled in the introductory composition class where he shot his victims.
This never went through however, as Harper-Mercer spent his entire life living with his mother, and hadn't seen his father since they had moved to Oregon some two years before the shooting.
[46][47][48][49][50][51] Harper-Mercer joined the U.S. Army in 2008, but was discharged after five weeks for his failure to meet the "minimum administrative standards" of basic training at Fort Jackson, South Carolina.
[59][60] According to the Los Angeles Times, unnamed law enforcement sources described him as a "hate-filled" man with antireligious and white supremacist leanings, and with long-term mental-health issues.
[32] There were 14 legally purchased weapons kept in the apartment, and Harper-Mercer's mother wrote online that she always kept full magazines in Glock pistols and an AR-15 rifle inside.
According to his community college transcript, Harper-Mercer earned a 1.75 GPA during his time at UCC, and a letter dated September 1 warned him that he could be suspended if he did not raise his grades.
"[74][b] U.S. President Barack Obama said that "thoughts and prayers [do] not capture the heartache and grief and anger that we should feel, and it does nothing to prevent this carnage from being inflicted some place else in America next week or a couple months from now.
On October 5, the White House announced that Obama would continue to take more executive action on the subject of gun control.
[77] Obama was met at Roseburg Regional Airport by around 200 protesters rallying behind a security fence, some with holstered weapons, who also showed support for Sheriff Hanlin, who had been highly visible during press conferences about the shooting.
After the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting, Hanlin had sent a letter to Vice President Joe Biden saying he would not enforce any new gun legislation he deemed to be unconstitutional.
[78] Although Harper-Mercer had substantial mental illness, he had never been involuntarily committed (which under federal and state law prohibits a person from purchasing a gun).
[79] An Oregon law passed in 2017, which went into effect in 2018, allows law enforcement or family members to file a petition in state court for an "extreme risk protection order"; such an order, if granted, temporarily blocks an individual from purchasing or possessing deadly weapons if the individual is determined to present an "imminent threat to themselves or others.