On Thursday morning, police say 26-year-old Chris Harper Mercer shot and killed at least nine people on the Umpqua Community College (UCC) campus before officers shot and killed him.
A new report claims someone appearing to be Mercer wrote longingly of the attention given to Vester Lee Flanagan after he shot a television reporter and cameraman on air in Virginia.
Mercer wounded at least seven people in addition to those he killed on the gun free UCC campus, law enforcement says.
According to CBS News, a blog which appears to be Mercer’s “[referenced] multiple shootings,” including the shooting carried out by Flanagan on August 26.
Regarding Flanagan, Mercer allegedly wrote:
I have noticed that so many people like [Flanagan] are alone and unknown, yet when they spill a little blood, the whole world knows who they are. A man who was known by no one, is now known by everyone. His face splashed across every screen, his name across the lips of every person on the planet, all in the course of one day. Seems like the more people you kill, the more you’re in the limelight.
During an evening press conference on the attack, Douglas County Sheriff John Hanlin asked media not to use the gunman’s name–not to give him the celebrity he may have been seeking via the attack.
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