Christopher Harper-Mercer, 26, was shot and killed by police officers during the apparently unprovoked attack at Umpqua Community College in Roseburg in southwestern Oregon that ended with 10 dead, including the gunman, and nine wounded.
Harper-Mercer was a student in the writing class he allegedly attacked, according to the Reuters news service.
Reuters said Harper-Mercer had washed out in basic training after joining the Army in 2008 and was barred from a self-defense and law enforcement academy in Torrance, Calif., in 2012 or 2013 after the academy president interviewed him.
But he was able to legally acquire an arsenal of more than a dozen guns, a stockpile of numerous bullet magazines and was wearing body armor when he attacked the school.
Eight of the dead were fellow Umpqua students and the ninth was the professor, Lawrence Levine, Reuters said.
Douglas County Sheriff John Hanlin, who has repeatedly refused to say Harper-Mercer’s name at news conferences, listed the slain students as Quinn Cooper, 18, Kim Saltmarsh Dietz, 59, Lucas Eibel, 18, Jason Johnson, 33 or 34, Sarena Moore, 44, Treven Anspach, 20, Rebecka Carnes, 18, and Lucero Alcaraz, 19
Hanlin said he would not name the accused gunman because he did not want to add to the publicity.
“Media and community members who publicize his name will only glorify his horrific actions,” Hanlin said.
“And eventually, this will only serve to inspire future shooters,” he said.
Witnesses said Harper-Mercer stormed into the classroom carrying six guns and five bullet magazines, and shot Levine in the head before turning to his classmates.
He demanded that each student state their religion before he shot them, Reuters said.
One of the students, Iraq war veteran Chris Mintz, tried to stop Harper-Mercer from entering another classroom before being shot repeatedly, Reuters said.
The intervention apparently forced the alleged shooter to change direction and might have prevented even more carnage, Reuters said.
Mintz suffered seven gunshot wounds and two broken legs but survived the attack, Reuters said.
The carnage made Way’s decision several years ago to bar Harper-Mercer from the Seven 4 Para private academy seem almost prescient.
“We wanted him to take a beginner safety course, and he was trying to tell me that he already had experience with firearms, and I didn’t get a good feeling about him, so I turned him down,” said Eloy Way, the academy president.
“He was a little bit too anxious to get high-level training, and there was no reason for it.” Way said.
Authorities found additional weapons and more ammunition at the apartment Harper-Mercer shared with his mother just outside Roseburg, a city of 23,000 located 180 miles south of Portland.
Celinez Nunez of U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, told Reuters that all the weapons were purchased legally.
