The assailant in the Umpqua Community College, Oregon mass shooting, Christopher Harper-Mercer, died by suicide, law enforcement officials have announced.
Harper-Mercer committed suicide during a firefight with two Roseburg, Ore. police officers and an Oregon state trooper wanting to disarm him, Douglas County Sheriff John Hanlin said during a press conference, according to The Huffington Post.
A search in Harper-Mercer's home revealed another handgun, bringing the total in the shooter's possession to 14, said Hanlin.
Reports also indicate that the young man had a troubled medical history and that his mother, Laurel Harper, a nurse, encouraged his fascination for weapons.
"She said she had multiple guns and believed wholeheartedly in the Second Amendment and wanted to get all the guns she could before someone outlawed them," said Shelly Steele, who hired Harper to care for teenage son, reported the New York Daily News.
Meanwhile, conflicting reports have emerged on what the gunman said before the killings.
The armed young man huddled together students of Assistant Prof. Lawrence Levine's Introduction to Expository Writing class, of which he himself was a student, before asking them questions.
"'Do you have a God? Are you Christian? Do you have a religion?'" said Stephanie Salas, the mother of Rand McGowan, a student who survived the massacre. Harper-Mercer then said, "You're going to be meeting your maker. This won't hurt very long," before shooting them, Salas said, according to Komo News.
But McGowan said that Mercer didn't appear to target Christians in particular. "He didn't really, honestly," McGowan said, according to the Daily News.
"We are shocked and deeply saddened by the horrific events that unfolded on Thursday, October 1. Our thoughts, our hearts and all our prayers go out to all of the families of those who died and were injured," a statement by the Mercer family read.
