ROSEBURG, Ore.— The gunman who opened fire at an Oregon college killed some of his victims after telling them to crawl across the classroom floor and shot one after saying he would spare her if she begged for her life, according to relatives of students in the classroom.
However, Christopher Sean Harper-Mercer spared a student and gave the “lucky one” something to deliver to authorities, according to the mother of a student who witnessed Thursday’s rampage.
Authorities have not disclosed whether they have an envelope or package from Harper-Mercer, who Douglas County Sheriff John Hanlin said Saturday killed himself as officers arrived. But a law enforcement official said a manifesto of several pages had been recovered.
Bonnie Schaan, the mother of 16-year-old Cheyeanne Fitzgerald, said she was told by her 16-year-old daughter that the gunman gave someone an envelope and told him to go to a corner of the classroom.
Harper-Mercer said the person “‘was going to be the lucky one,’” Schaan told reporters outside a hospital where her daughter’s kidney was removed after she was shot.
Relatives of other survivors of the shooting that killed nine also said Harper-Mercer gave something to a student in the class.
Pastor Randy Scroggins, whose 18-year-old daughter Lacey escaped without physical injuries, said she told him that the gunman called to a student, saying: “‘Don’t worry, you’re the one who is going to survive.’”
Harper-Mercer then told the student that inside the shooter’s backpack was “all the information that you'll need, give it to the police,” Scroggins said, citing the account by his daughter.
Scroggins also said his daughter heard the gunman tell one victim he would spare that person’s life if the student begged, then shot the begging victim anyway.
Lacey Scroggins also spoke about students being ordered to crawl to the middle of the room before being shot. Scroggins said his daughter survived because she was lying on the floor and partially covered by the body and blood of a fellow student. The gunman thought Lacey Scroggins was dead as well, stepped over her and shot someone else.
Randy Scroggins received a phone call from that student’s mother while speaking with The Associated Press.
“He saved my girl. I will forever call your son my hero,” he said of 20-year-old Treven Anspach. He told the man’s mother he would mention her son during his Sunday church service and ask for prayers. “I’m so sorry for your loss.”
Janet Willis said her granddaughter Anastasia Boylan was wounded in the Thursday attack and pretended to be dead as Harper-Mercer kept firing, killing eight students and a teacher.
