REPUBLIKA.CO.ID, ROSEBURG -- The gunman who killed his English professor and eight others at an Oregon community college committed suicide after a shootout with police who were on the scene within five minutes and exchanged fire with him almost immediately, authorities said.
Investigators had previously said the 26-year-old shooter was killed by the officers who raced to the rampage at Umpqua Community College in Roseburg, which ranks as the deadliest among dozens of U.S. mass shootings in the past two years.
Douglas County Sheriff John Hanlin told a news conference on Saturday the state medical examiner had determined that the gunman, Christopher Harper-Mercer, took his own life.
Releasing a timeline of the massacre's first hour, Hanlin said two Roseburg police officers were on the scene within five minutes, and reported to dispatch that they engaged the gunman just two minutes later. Hanlin said they "neutralized" him.
"Officers responded immediately ... there was an exchange of gunfire, (and) the shooter was neutralized at that point in time," the sheriff said. "As far as the very specific
information regarding whether it was an officer's bullet or his own bullet, we aren't prepared at this time to discuss."
Hanlin said an additional handgun was also recovered from the shooter's apartment, making a total of 14 weapons seized: eight from his home, and six he took to the college.
Harper-Mercer was officially identified on Friday as the assailant who survivors said stormed into the classroom of his introductory writing class on Thursday and shot the professor at point-blank range, before picking off other victims one at a time as he questioned each about their religion and whether they were Christians.
Authorities have disclosed little of what they may know about the gunman's motives.
Citing unnamed sources, CNN said he left a statement that showed animosity toward blacks. An FBI spokeswoman declined to comment on the investigation.
Bonnie Schaan, mother of 16-year-old Cheyeanne Fitzgerald who was shot in the attack, said her daughter told her the shooter chose a male student and handed him an envelope.
"He told everybody else to go to the middle of the room and lay down," Schaan said outside the hospital where her daughter remains in critical condition after having a kidney was removed.
"She was right there," Schaan told reporters. "He (the gunman) called the one guy, gave him the envelope and told him to go to the corner of the classroom because obviously he was going to be the one that was going to be telling the story."
Asked if the shooter had given anything to anyone at the scene, Sheriff Hanlin said he did not know.
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