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Students, officials describe Umpqua Community College shooting Comment By Christine Mai-Duc and Lauren Raab Los Angeles Times DailyTidings.com By Christine Mai-Duc and Lauren Raab Los Angeles Times Posted Oct. 1, 2015 at 3:41 PM By Christine Mai-Duc and Lauren Raab Los Angeles Times Posted Oct. 1, 2015 at 3:41 PM » Social News At least 13 people were killed and 20 more injured by a gunman who opened fire Thursday at Umpqua Community College in Roseburg, officials said. The gunman was killed in an exchange of gunfire with police, Douglas County Sheriff Jon Hanlin told reporters at an afternoon news briefing. Oregon Gov. Kate Brown said the gunman was a 20-year-old male. Authorities have provided no further details about the suspect or his motives for the attack. The FBI confirmed that it is now involved in the investigation. “It’s sad that we’re now in that horrible club of schools that have had to deal with this,” Douglas County Commissioner Tim Freeman told the Los Angeles Times. “I hope communities around our nation will pray for us.” “It’s a tragic event and we’re right in the middle of it,” County Commissioner Chris Boice said. The shooting is among the worst mass killings at a school over the past two decades, which include the attack at Columbine High School in Colorado in 1999 in which 13 people were killed and the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting in Connecticut in 2012, which claimed 28 lives. At the White House, President Barack Obama was briefed by aides. Spokesman Josh Earnest said: “Sensible steps that can be taken to protect our communities from gun violence continue to be a top priority of this administration.” The shooting was reported about 10:40 a.m. at Umpqua Community College in Roseburg. The school has about 3,300 full- and part-time students. Lorie Andrews, 57, who lives on Songbird Court across the street from the campus, was sitting on her back porch she heard shots. Minutes later, she said, police cars began flooding the area. “Ambulances are still coming in,” she told Oregonlive.com “Cops are still coming in.” She estimated roughly 20 ambulances and 75 police cars, including police officials in their private vehicles, pouring into the area. “Everybody is in shock. Very, very shocked,” Andrews said. The shock carried over onto the campus where students and faculty tried to make sense of events. McCrae Kittelman was in math class when he first heard of a shooting in the school’s science building a short walk away. He learned of it when his professor sprinted into the room. “That was one of the most strange and disquieting parts,” said Kittelman, 17, “is that there were no sounds at all.” Kittelman’s mother, Marilyn, first learned of it six minutes later. She immediately began texting her son — who responded. “All of a sudden everyone was freaking out about stuff happening over in Snyder Hall, which is right next door to where my math class was behind held,” Kittelman told Fox News and others while still in lockdown. Hanlin would not confirm whether the shootings occurred in Snyder Hall, however. Kittelman and the rest of the students on campus — which is accessible by a single road and sits high on a hill overlooking the Umpqua River — were evacuated by buses to the Douglas County Fairgrounds, where they remain. He described the campus as “calm” during the evacuation. For some like Jodi Sonka and her professor, the first thought was that there was a drill going on. “He was like, ‘Oh, this never happens,’” Sonka told CNN. “Then he heard it was real and said we all need to get in the back room now, immediately.” FBI agents entered the classroom and told them the shooter was down. “We were all taken outside to be patted down by police officers to make sure no one else had anything on them,” she said. “We were loaded on buses and taken to the fairgrounds.” Sonka said students were also being told that they would not be allowed to retrieve their cars on campus until the vehicles are searched and cleared. Joe Olson, the former president of the school, told The Associated Press that the campus has only one security officer on duty at a time, and that person isn’t armed. The shooting stunned the small community of about 22,000 people. Freeman, the county commissioner, said that several years when his daughter was a freshman in high school there was a shooting at her campus, and that on Thursday his 19-year-old son was on campus during the Umpqua shooting. “We went through this once with my daughter,” Freeman said. “Much like everybody else, we had an emergency plan,” he said. “He immediately left campus, went to a friend’s house, to a safe location, and called me.” “Our community has had to deal with this on some level before,” Freeman said. “You can tell it’s a sad day here, and you see that on people’s faces.” Fall classes began Monday, Freeman said. Oregon Attorney General Ellen Rosenblum said that 13 people had been killed in several classrooms. State Police Lt. Bill Fugate told KATU-TV that at least 20 more were injured. A photographer for the Roseburg News-Review newspaper said he saw people being loaded into multiple ambulances and taken to hospitals. Mercy Hospital in Roseburg confirmed that it has received nine patients and three more were on the way. PeaceHealth Sacred Heart Medical Center at Riverbend in Springfield, Ore., tweeted that two victims of the shooting had arrived and more were expected. ——— (Staff writers James Queally, Carla Rivera and Ann Simmons contributed to this report.) ——— ©2015 Los Angeles Times By Christine Mai-Duc and Lauren Raab Los Angeles Times DailyTidings.com By Christine Mai-Duc and Lauren Raab Los Angeles Times Posted Oct. 1, 2015 at 3:41 PM » Comment or view comments Reader Reaction » STAY INFORMED Email NewsLetter Sign Up Today Sign up for our newsletter and have the top headlines from your community delivered right to your inbox. Southern Oregon Directory Featured Businesses Loading... 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