Oregon Gunman Asked Victims If They Were Christians

Chris Mintz - Oregon college student and Army vet

Oregon Gunman Asked Victims If They Were Christians

By Heather Sells, CBN News Reporter  Friday, October 02, 2015

Witnesses are saying the gunman in Thursday's mass shooting in Oregon asked students if they were Christians before murdering them.

But they're also talking about student and Army vet Chris Mintz, who they say charged straight at the shooter.

Thirty-year-old Mintz is recovering from surgery after Chris Harper Mercer shot him seven times. Witnesses said Mintz told other students to run, then charged straight for the gunman.

"He actually ran back towards the building where the shooting was and he ran back into the building and I don't know what happened to him," witness Hannah Miles said.

Mercer wounded six others and killed nine people. The father of a wounded victim told CNN that Mercer reportedly ordered students to stand up and asked if they were Christians.

"And they would stand up and he said, 'Good, because you're a Christian, you're going to see God in just about one second. And then he shot and killed them," CNN's Stacy Boylan said.

Thursday night, family and friends of victims mourned the tragedy and their loss.

"This doesn't happen in Roseberg," a local resident said. "This is small town America - it's not supposed to happen here but it happens."

The community of Roseberg is grappling with the enormity of the tragedy which has raised all kinds of questions. Why would the gunman have wanted to know the faith of the people he was about to shoot? And what was his motive?

A profile of the suspect is beginning to emerge as authorities search for a motive.

On MySpace, Mercer posted a photo of himself with a rifle and other photos glorifying the Irish Republican Army. On another website he described himself as a conservative Republican who's not religious but spiritual.

Neighbors at his apartment complex say he was as shy, reserved and familiar with guns. Investigators don't believe he had a criminal history and said he may have been a student at the college.

"He was just silent. He didn't really speak much. If you approached him, he kind of seemed hesitant," one neighbor said.

"He had no friends. He was just kind of like off to himself," another one said.

On one Internet site, called Spiritual Passions, he described himself as "not religious, but spiritual." He didn't like "organized religion" and said, "I'm looking for someone to share my beliefs."

He used similar language online when he said he was looking for a woman who was "pagan, wiccan, not religious, but spiritual."

Within hours of the shooting, President Barack Obama called a press conference to demand new gun laws, saying that gun violence is "something we should politicize."

"Somehow this has become routine," Obama said in a White House briefing Thursday. "The reporting is routine, my response here at this podium ends up being routine, the conversation in the aftermath of it -- we've become numb to this."

The FBI and other law enforcement officials are now combing through Mercer's emails and online activity trying to figure out a motive.