FBI profilers to help explain more about Oregon school shooter

Luke Skywalker · Oct 4, 2015

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[h=4]FBI profilers to help explain more about Oregon school shooter[/h]Sheriff said FBI will assist in analyzing shooter's writings, documents and digital media.

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Hundreds of people gathered on Saturday at an amphitheater in Winston, Oregon for a Christian concert and prayer service. Residents of Roseburg and surrounding cities say they're in disbelief about the deadly shooting at Umpqua Community College. (O AP

A sign at a church shows support for the victims of the Umpqua Community College shooting in Roseburg, Ore., on Oct.3, 2015.(Photo: Josh Edelson, AFP/Getty Images)

ROSEBURG, Ore. —*As many residents headed to church on a cool, clear Sunday morning, three days after a shooting at the community college here left nine dead plus the gunman, FBI profilers are beginning their efforts to help explain the shooter's actions.
The gunman, Chris Mercer, 26, opened fire inside a classroom at Umpqua Community College shortly after 10:30 a.m. Thursday, authorities said.*The gunman killed eight of his classmates and their instructor and wounded nine others before he committed suicide while exchanging gunfire with police at the scene.
Douglas County Sheriff John Hanlin said the FBI's Behavior Analysis Team will assist investigators in analyzing writings, documents and digital media seized from several locations, including the shooter's apartment about a mile from the college. Authorities say the gunman had access to 14 guns, although he carried only four of them during the shooting.
USA TODAY
James Alan Fox: Umpqua shooting - a tragedy, not a trend

"Primarily what we want to do is gain an understanding," Hanlin said. Victims' families, he said, "deserve to know the answers."
Following the Aurora*movie theater shooting in Colorado three years ago, prosecutors rejected a plea-bargain offer by that shooter on the grounds that a trial would flesh out his motivations, while also providing insight into whether anyone saw warning signs and tried to stop him.
Hanlin, speaking to reporters Friday afternoon, declined to discuss specific items collected by investigators*or to respond to media reports that the gunman handed items or some kind of manifesto to a fellow student before opening fire.
Bonnie Schaan, the mother of Cheyeanne Fitzgerald, 16, who was wounded, said her daughter told her the gunman gave someone an envelope and told him to go to a corner of the classroom, the Associated Press reported.
Mercer said the person “’was going to be the lucky one,’” Schaan told reporters outside a hospital where her daughter’s kidney was removed after she was shot, the AP said.
Relatives of other survivors*also said Mercer gave something to a student in the class.
Randy Scroggins, a pastor whose 18-year-old daughter Lacey escaped without physical injuries, said she told him that the gunman called to a student, saying: “’Don’t worry, you’re the one who is going to survive,’” the AP said.
Mercer then told the student that inside*the shooter’s backpack was “all the information that you’ll need, give it to the police,” Scroggins said, citing the account by his daughter.
Scroggins also said his daughter heard the gunman tell one victim he would spare that person’s life if the student begged, then shot the begging victim anyway, according to the AP.
The sheriff's office provided a statement issued by the gunman's family: "We are shocked and deeply saddened by the horrific events that unfolded on Thursday, October 1. Our thoughts, our hearts and our prayers go out to all of the families of those who died and were injured. "
DETROIT FREE PRESS
Official: Oregon gunman left angry note glorifying mass killers

As has become his custom, Hanlin refuses*to speak the shooter's name aloud, a decision that helped reignite a debate about the media's potential complicity in mass*shootings by angry young men seeking glory. Many Roseburg residents were upset when the killer's name and photo were splashed across newspaper front pages, arguing that the focus on his actions reduced the emphasis on his victims.
The sheriff's office has identified the dead as:

*Lucero Alcaraz, 19, of Roseburg, whose sister posted on Facebook that she won scholarships to cover her college costs;

*Quinn Glen Cooper, 18, of Roseburg, whose family said he loved dancing and voice acting;

*Kim Saltmarsh Dietz, 59, an outdoors lover who was taking classes at the same time as her daughter;

Lucas Eibel, 18, of Roseburg, who was studying chemistry and loved volunteering with animals;

*Jason Johnson, 33, whose mother told NBC News that he successfully battled drug abuse and was in his first week of college;

*Lawrence Levine, 67, of Glide, an assistant professor of English at the college;

*Sarena Dawn Moore, 44, of Myrtle Creek;

Treven Taylor Anspach, 20, of Sutherlin, who apparently shielded a fellow classmate even as he lay dying, saving her life; and

Rebecka Ann Carnes, 18, of Myrtle Creek.

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FBI profilers to help explain more about Oregon school shooter

Luke Skywalker

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