The gunman who opened fire inside an Oregon community college targeted Christians, students say.
The shooter first shot an Umpqua Community College professor at point-blank range Thursday, before asking students to stand up and answer if they were Christians, according to a student witness’ account. Anastasia Boylan, 18, told her father what happened before spinal surgery from the injuries she sustained in the shooting.
When students responded to the gunman’s request that they stand, he said: “Good, because you’re a Christian, you’re going to see God in just about one second,” her father Stacy Boylan recounted to CNN.
Everyone dropped to the ground, and he began shooting. Boylan, who took a bullet to the back, survived by playing dead. The shooter said he’d “been waiting to do this for years,” according to Boylan.
The local newspaper The News-Review reported a similiar account of the shooter targeting Christians from another student, Kortney Moore, just after the attack.
Douglas County Sheriff John Hanlin said he would not release the name of the gunman, because he should not receive “the credit he probably sought prior to this horrific and cowardly act.”
President Obama responded to the shooter’s actions Thursday by calling for more gun control,
“Somehow this has become routine,” Obama said. “We’ve become numb to this.”
