New information about the Umpqua Community College shooting is shedding light on the shooters motive in yesterday's killing spree that left 10 dead, including the shooter, 26-year-old James Harper Mercer. Witnesses are testifying that Mercer specifically targeted Christians, according to the Washington Post.
Mercer burst inside a classroom with multiple weapons (he was not a student there) and had everyone publicly announce their faith. Those who answered that they were Christian were shot, while those who answered "correctly" were spared and told to get on the ground.
One student, Courtney Moore, 18, saw an event unfold that led to her professor getting shot in the head.
"The shooter was inside at that point, and he told people to get on the ground," she said, according to the Mirror. "The shooter was asking people to stand up and state their religion and then started firing."
Anastasia Boylan, another witness to the shooting, recalled hearing Mercer say to one Christian, "Good, because you're a Christian, you're going to see God in just about one second," according to CNN.
His anti-religion rampage finally came to an end after he was killed in a shootout with police.
Outside of the warning he made on the Internet site 4chan, Mercer left a few hints over social media that this day may come. The British-born immigrant under the online identity Lithium_Love expressed admiration for Roanoke shooter Vester Lee Flanagan. He listed organized religion as a "dislike" on another Internet site.
This shooting is the 45th mass campus shooting to occur this year.
For more about the shooting, click HERE
