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Roseburg Looks For Answers In Wake Of Mass Shooting

Roseburg community members held a vigil for the victims of Thusday's shooting at Umpqua Community College.
John Rosman
/
OPB
Roseburg community members held a vigil for the victims of Thusday's shooting at Umpqua Community College.

There's still no known motive for the gunman who opened fire Thursday at Umpqua Community College in southern Oregon. The city of Roseburg was rocked by news that ten people died in the shooting.

The school's interim president, Rita Cavin spoke Thursday evening at a candlelight vigil in a local park. She said she hopes people will respond to the shooting with words of peace.

"Anger caused this and we can't have anger around us right this minute,” Cavin said. “We need love and compassion and healing, and it's going to take a long time."

Police have told reporters the shooter was 26-year-old Chris Harper Mercer. Police say he died in a gunfight with responding officers.

Oregon Governor Kate Brown has ordered the state's flags to half-staff until sundown Friday.

Copyright 2015 Northwest News Network

Chris Lehman graduated from Temple University with a journalism degree in 1997. He landed his first job less than a month later, producing arts stories for Red River Public Radio in Shreveport, Louisiana. Three years later he headed north to DeKalb, Illinois, where he worked as a reporter and announcer for NPR–affiliate WNIJ–FM. In 2006 he headed west to become the Salem Correspondent for the Northwest News Network.