Umpqua Community School Shooting Case Study

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Twenty-six year old Christopher Harper-Mercer was a student enrolled in the Umpqua Community College. He shot eight students and injured 9 others. Harper committed suicide by shooting himself in the head. It was at 10:38 a.m. that the first call for 911 was made. Students said that the shooting began where the English and writing classes were located. It was said that Harper entered the classroom and fired a warning shot. Some witnesses said that before he opened fire on the other students, he let a student live so that he could give a message to the police. Harper forced this student to sit in the back of the classroom and watch as he shot the rest of his classmates. The Umpqua Community College shooting took place on October 1, 2015 at Roseburg, Oregon. The first person Harper shot was an English professor, other witnesses said the shooter asked students if they were religious, saying to those who said yes, that they would go to heaven and he shot them. Downing said, “He then has another student stand up and asked him the same, when he answered ‘Catholic’ the shooter then asked if he believed in the afterlife. The student said I don’t know and the shooter thanked him for standing for his beliefs and shot him.” One witness said he made a woman beg for her life before he shot her, another woman tried to reason with him but he shot her, and shot a …show more content…

Minutes after the police arrived, the shooter got out of the classroom, shooting at two detectives. They fired three shots in return, hitting him once. After two minutes of shooting, Harper went back into the classroom and committed suicide with one shot to his head. No officers were injured whatsoever. The Douglas County Sheriff’s Office said via Twitter that one shotgun, two pistols and four rifles were found at his house, while another rifle and five different pistols were found at