"Lucky one" in Oregon shootings provides details of massacre

[Omaha Steve]

Source: AP

By LISA BAUMANN

SEATTLE (AP) — The 18-year-old college student singled out by the shooter as the "lucky one" to survive and deliver a package to law enforcement has told his story for the first time about the massacre in Roseburg, Oregon.

In a written statement that was the most detailed account thus far of the Oct. 1 shooting, Mathew Downing said Friday that when Christopher Harper-Mercer entered the Umpqua Community College classroom, Downing's ears were ringing from shots already fired, and he thought what was happening "couldn't be real."

He said the first thing the shooter did was put his backpack on the front desk and pull out an envelope, saying: "There is a flash drive in this and whoever survives this should give it to the police."

Downing's account of what came next coincides with relatives of survivors who previously reported that Harper-Mercer looked at Downing and said, "Hey kid with the glasses, you are the lucky one. I will not shoot you if you give this to the cops."

FULL story at link.



From left, Mathew Downing, Lacey Scroggins and Lisa Scroggins wipe their eyes during a church service at the New Beginnings Church of God, Sunday, Oct. 4, 2015, in Roseburg, Ore. Mathew Downing and Lacey Scroggins are survivors of the shooting at Umpqua Community College. (AP Photo/John Locher)

Read more: http://bigstory.ap.org/article/cb50a1a8a16144378a3c6530b7e06124/lucky-one-roseburg-shooting-speaks-about-massacre

[Fred Sanders]

1. No pictures allowed of gun slaughter just like no pictures allowed of war slaughter.

Remember the one picture of an 8 year old body washed up in a shore a month ago totally changed the conversation about Syrian refugees and moved the conscience of the world?


I am sorry to say that is what it will take.

Suppression of the truth of what the violence of guns does, in war or peace, the carnage caused by guns is another truth that needs in your face truth-telling.

The streets of America are filling up with the blood of innocents, one picture of the actual results of the daily carnage is free speech as it was meant to be used.

[LibDemAlways]

8. If pictures had been published of the

numerous dead 1st graders at Sandy Hook, we may well have had more stringent gun control by today. At least the public outcry would certainly have been greater. The media sanitizes these atrocities by not publishing photos, thereby desensitizing the public to the gruesomeness of the slaughter. I agree. We need to see photographs of the aftermath in order to effect change.

[flamingdem]

13. Good point!

One iconic image could change everything.

[passiveporcupine]

15. like the little Vietnam girl running naked down teh road

An image that was singed into our brains and will always remain powerful.

[flamingdem]

17. I remember seeing that as a kid

It was the front page center of the New York Times and that said it all. Unforgettable.

[ck4829]

2. It's like they get their sanity back when the police show up and do what they should have done first

Stop and shoot themselves in the head.

Rodger, Lanza, this guy, and more.

Media and politicians call their actions senseless, call them mentally ill, etc.

Don't get me wrong, these shooters are clearly very delusional, and that shows up in the writings of Elliot Rodger for example.

But these shooters are going around acting on their delusions, as irrational as they are, as senseless as they are, and as much as they think their mass killings are a strike against the world itself; they realize they can not take on an entire police force and I have no doubt they are afraid of getting taken alive, case in point in Dylann Roof trying to kill himself but did not realize he ran out of ammo.

But the latter point means they have cost/benefit going on in their heads, it's the fear of taken alive and/or they know what they are doing is wrong. So they're not so delusional that it affects that.

Something causes reality to reappear for these killers, and finding out what that factor is could be considered to be as important as to finding out why they do it in the first place.

[LiberalArkie]

5. They are following what the voices tell them is happening. The fantasy they are living

may have been going on for months or even years. Real life works it way into the fantasy and becomes part of it. When the police show up and start shouting and screaming, I think they finally realize that indeed they have been in a fantasy world and see what they did for what it really is.

Back in 1995 a couple of friends stopped by my house. We watched some tv and then they asked me if I needed anything from the store. I told them a 2 liter of coke. They brought back the coke and a Dr. Pepper. It had been so long since I had drank any DR. Pepper that I drank a couple glasses or it without them knowing I had. I found out years later that they were going to a party and had mixed LSD in the dr pepper. I went on a psychotic journey that lasted over 5 years. But to everyone else I was ok. Just the voices in my head made me live in a fantasy world. But I am a very peaceful person by nature and very Spock-like in thinking. I knew I was in a fantasy world and a lot of it was very funny. But I worked my way out of it. I can see how some may not be able to do it though.

[ck4829]

9. Scary and interesting at the same time

You knew you were in a fantasy world, to me it sounds like these killers had a whole delusional world set up around them. Some might not be able to work their way out of it as you said. I wonder though, if there are others who don't want to do this, who think their fantasies are special or give them set them apart from everyone else.

[LiberalArkie]

11. It all seemed totally rational to me in a weird way. Let's say you believed in spirits.

And then one day they started talking to you. (Now in my case I was drugged) so lets say you had an accident and you were put on have painkillers. Then "an angel" started talking to you. Now the angel knew things about you. Naturally, because it is in your head. But you don't realize it. Now depending on you nature, are you a violent type or a peaceful type. Me I am the type where as a child A guy on the school bus hit me in the head with a piece of pipe. I forgave he and never raised my voice> So it would not be in my nature to go and kill people. I would not be able to imagine wanting to do it of being forced to do it.

I did some crazy assed stuff, but nothing that would hurt anyone. The voices got so loud that I could not turn my TV up loud enough to block them out. I think it is the same thing that happens to someone when they get really drunk for a few days. Some start tearing things up (I think they are paranoid), some become like they are puppies (the happy drunk).

But in the end it is all the persons imagination. And that is the problem. I think the kids could have been caught and worked with as young children. But if they come from an environment with parents and friends who are abusive and violent, then they never see anything wrong when they start hearing voices. When I was a kid I always heard, "That's just your imagination". I never hear anyone say that any more.

[demigoddess]

14. can't quite agree, I think they were intending suicide all along

but wanted to take some with them and go out in a blaze of glory, news coverage of their anger etc. A loser who has nothing else that people would remember them by.

[passiveporcupine]

16. The police actuallyl shot him before he laid down and shot himself in the head

He might have fought on a little longer if he hadn't been shot.

You know, what if schools taught students (in drills) to use desks to shield themselves and charge the shooter (if he does not have semi auto or huge magazine with rapid fire). That way, if they are shot, it will just be in their legs (mostly) and they might be able to knock him down and overpower him with the desks. I wonder if the desks would stop bullets. Maybe they need to be made bullet proof with metal sheathing underneath.

What am I talking about? I sound like a republican...defense instead of offense. We need to get these guns out of the hands of unstable people.

[oberliner]

3. The singling out Christians part was actually true apparently

That seems to have been corroborated now by several different people.

[d_r]

4. He asked them their religion

but I don't think he was singling out any particular religion. I think he was just a evil little fuckhead. He killed a pagan woman also.

[jwirr]

6. It may be that they go to the scene of the crime expecting

to kill themselves or be killed. To become a martyr for the cause or in anger to take someone with them when they go. No simple suicide for them.

By killing themselves they may be continuing to go the way they started. No change of mind, just completion of the cause.

[B2G]

7. So what was on the flash drive? nt

[treestar]

10. Thread win

Story at link does not say!

[oberliner]

12. It's his "manifesto"

That so far has been left unreleased to the public.

[Flying Squirrel]

18. Good

Flush it down the john