Details Emerge About Umpqua Community College Shooting Suspect

The man killed by police on Thursday after he fatally shot 10 people at Umpqua Community College in southern Oregon was a nervy 26-year-old who lived close to the campus with his mother and described himself as shy.

A law enforcement source told Reuters that multiple agencies had identified the shooter as Chris Harper-Mercer. Online directories list a man of that name as having lived in Torrance, California, before moving to Winchester, Oregon.

Though the identity is being widely reported, Douglas County Sheriff John Hanlin, who is investigating the execution-style killing, refused to name the shooter at a press conference late on Thursday, saying that he wanted to deny the shooter notoriety.

"I will not name the shooter. I will not give him credit for this horrific act of cowardice," he said. "Media will get the name confirmed in time… but you will never hear us use it."

Law enforcement officers were reportedly out in force at the Winchester apartment building identified in databases as Harper-Mercer's residence. Two neighbors said that they recognized online photos of Harper Mercer as a man from the apartment building. A phone number listed for the address was busy.

Authorities revealed on Friday that various weapons were found in the apartment — two pistols, four rifles, and a shotgun. They recovered six guns, including five handguns and an assault rifle, from the scene of the shooting on Thursday, which began in a classroom in the college's Snyder Hall building. It later emerged that all of the weapons had been purchased legally.

Apart from the deaths, seven people were wounded at the community college, which is located in Roseburg, a timber town of about 20,000 people that neighbors Winchester.

According to the Los Angeles Times, one of the victims of the shooting, an 18-year-old girl who was shot in the back but survived, told her grandmother from her hospital bed that she heard the gunman ask people to rise and state their religion. The shooter was said to have been targeting Christians.

A photo posted on a MySpace profile identified as belonging to someone named Chris Harper-Mercer from Torrance showed a young man with a shaved head, dark-rimmed glasses, and a serious expression. He was holding a long-barreled gun. Various other photos on the page showed masked fighters of the Irish Republican Army.

A neighbor next door to the Winchester building said Thursday night that he recognized online photos of Harper-Mercer as his neighbor.

"I just started noticing him the last 4-6 months, there's a playground out behind the apartments, and we're on the second story. I go outside to smoke and I watch for anyone," said neighbor Steven Fisher, who also said he had never spoken to Harper-Mercer. "Around 5-5:30 in the evening I'd see him out there with a couple kids. He seemed skittish, always looking over his shoulder to see if anyone was watching."

Another neighbor also recognized online photos of Harper Mercer, saying he knew him from the neighborhood.

Police tape was drawn across one of the units and officers with a dog were stationed outside. Investigators from agencies including the Douglas County Sheriff's Department, Homeland Security Protective Services, and the FBI were on site.

Messages that appeared on the anonymous bulletin board 4chan.org on Wednesday evening had warned viewers not to go to school on Thursday "if you are in the northwest." The posts have not yet been verified as having been authored by Harper-Mercer.

Relatives of Harper-Mercer's in California expressed shock to reporters.

"I can't answer any questions right now. I don't want to answer any questions right now," said Ian Mercer, the suspect's father. "Obviously, it's been a devastating day, devastating for me and my family.

Carmen Nesnick, Harper-Mercer's step-sister, said, "All he ever did was put everybody before himself. He wanted everyone to be happy. No matter if he was sad or mad, he would always try to cheer up everybody."

"It doesn't sound like something he would have to go through," she added, in apparent reference to the shooting. "He didn't have to go through that."

In an internet posting on the Spiritual Passions dating and social networking site, a user posted a picture that appears to be Harper-Mercer under the username IRONCROSS45, a handle that he appears to have also used as his email, ironcross45@gmail.com.

The user described himself as a 26-year-old, mixed-race man looking for a woman. He said he was a "teetotaler" living with his parents, and that he was "not religious, but spiritual." The profile identified him as a conservative Republican. Socially, the user said, he was "shy at first" and "better in small groups."

The same email address was also associated with the profile of user Lithium_Love on torrent sharing website KickAssTorrents. The account's last upload was reportedly a documentary about the Sandy Hook school shooting in 2012.

There were also blog posts associated with that account, one of which was about Vester Flanagan, the man who shot two TV journalists dead in Virginia during a live broadcast on August 26 before killing himself. The post, which was published on August 31, chillingly suggested that Harper-Mercer might have been inspired by that act of violence to commit an atrocity of his own.

"On an interesting note, I have noticed that so many people like him are all alone and unknown, yet when they spill a little blood, the whole world knows who they are," the post said. "Aman who was known by no one, is now known by everyone. His face splashed across every screen, his name across the lips of every person on the planet, all in the course of one day. Seems the more people you kill, the more you're in the limelight."

It ended by encouraging readers to look up the grisly video that Flanagan had shot of his murders and uploaded to social media, describing it as "a short video but good nonetheless."