United States: at least ten dead in shooting

At least ten people were killed and seven people injured, three of them seriously, in a shooting at Umpqua Community College in Roseburg, Oregon, according to local sheriff John Hanlin.

The first shots rang out on Thursday October 1, 10:30 a.m. local time (19:30 p.m. French time) in the classrooms of the university's science faculty.

According to CNN, the shooter was shot dead after an exchange of fire with police.  He allegedly posted a message on social media before taking action and setting fire in several classrooms. The suspected shooter was identified by police as Chris Harper Mercer, aged 26, not a university student.

On his MySpace profile, he published several images glorifying the IRA and on a dating site, he claims to be a “ Conservative Republican who dislikes organized religion“. A student who witnessed the scene told the media that Chris Harper Mercer acted methodically, going from class to class and asking everyone their religion before firing. He allegedly targeted Christian students.

The grandmother of an injured girl told Los Angeles Times that the shooter asked students to state their religion: “ If they answered that they were Christians, he would shoot them“, she explains to the American media. The father of this young girl spoke to CNN, declaring that before shooting the students, Chris Harper told them: “ As you are Christians, you will see God in a second"

Obama denounces a routine.

A few days after the tragedy, and while many people were already gathered at the scene of the shooting, Barack Obama once again argues against gun control. The American president blamed political inaction and the lack of laws before deploring that “ these facts become routine”.