By Dan Calabrese ——Bio and Archives--October 2, 2015
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The gunman in Thursday's mass shooting at an Oregon community college specifically targeted Christians, three witnesses said, while online accounts linked to the shooter expressed disdain for organized religion. Authorities say Christopher Harper Mercer killed at least nine people and wounded at least seven others at Umpqua Community College in Roseburg before he was killed in an exchange of gunfire with police. Investigators have shed very little light publicly on Mercer's possible motive for the shooting. However, reports indicated they were examining Mercer's online presence very closely. One law enforcement official described Mercer to The New York Times as appearing to be "an angry young man who was very filled with hate." Another official said investigators were poring over what he described as "hateful"writings by Mercer. Oregon's top federal prosecutor told The Oregonian newspaper that authorities had heard rumors that the gunman had issued "some sort of race-related manifesto" before the shooting. Kortney Moore, 18, told the Roseburg News-Review that she was in a Writing 115 class when one shot came through the window. Moore said she saw her teacher get shot in the head. The shooter then reportedly told the students to get on the ground before asking people to stand up and state their religion. He then began firing. Moore said she was lying on the ground with people who had been shot.Like I said, there's too little we know for sure to make grand, definitive statements about the cause and what we need to take away from this horrible event. As much as I sort of want to, it would be irresponsible at this point to link it to all the anti-Christian venom that's been spewed so freely in the popular culture as late.
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