Oregon shooter identified as Chris Harper Mercer, targeted a professor and the ‘religious’

New reports has identified the gunman as Chris Harper Mercer in the shooting at Umpqua Community College in Roseburg, Oregon, which left over 10 dead and over a dozen injured.

Mercer, 26, is originally from California and has been described as “…an angry young man who was very filled with hate” in a NY Times article. He was shot and killed after gun fire was exchanged with police. CNN detailed that Mercer had three handguns and an AR-15 model rifle.

Chris Harper Mercer

Witnesses said the gunman told the students in a classroom to stand up and state their religion before he began firing at them. That said, CBS identifies Mercer and states that he describes himself as “Not Religious, but Spiritual” on a dating website.

From the Heavy: Mercer writes on Spiritual Passions that he’s “mixed race,” lives with parents, is a “conservative, republican” and is “Not Religious, Not Religious, but Spiritual.”

Mercer appears to have been seeking “15 minutes of fame” writing while he had a blog on the website Kickass Torrents about Vester Flanagan and the shooting in Virginia. He ultimately states that “Seems the More People You Kill, the More You’re in the Limelight…”

They also summarize more witness accounts:

Kortney Moore, an 18-year-old student, told the newspaper that she was in her writing class in Snyder Hall when a shot came through a window. She said she saw her teacher get shot in the head and the gunman entered the room, telling people to get on the ground. Moore said he then told people to stand up and state their religion, before firing away. She was lying on the ground with people who were shot.

Anastasia Boylan, who was shot in the back, offered the disturbing details to her father and brother before undergoing spinal surgery.

“He shot the professor, point blank, one shot, killed him — took him right out of it,” Boylan’s father, Stacy, told CNN. “And then, this man, had enough time, I don’t know how much time elapsed before he was able to stand there and start asking people one by one what their religion was. ‘Are you a Christian?’ he would ask them. And if you’re a Christian, stand up.”

“And they would stand up and he said, ‘Good, because you’re a Christian, you’re going to see God in just about one second,’” he continued, relaying his daughter’s account. “And then he shot and killed them.”

“The shooter was lining people up and asking if they were christian,” tweeted Bodhi Looney, who said her grandmother was in the room as the shooting unfolded. “If they said no, or didn’t answer, they were shot in the legs.”