Law enforcement authorities in Roseburg, Ore. were adamant that they would not speak the name of the shooter who murdered multiple people at Umpqua Community College (UCC).
The 20-year-old male killed nine, injured seven, and was slain himself in a shootout with police officers. The police have not disclosed a motive for the shooting, but witnesses indicated he was singling out Christians, CNN reported.
Stacy Boylan, the father of one of the students injured in the attack, told CNN his daughter, Anastasia, told his family the gunman ordered everyone in the classroom onto the ground. Chris Harper-Mercer then began asking people to stand and state their religion, killing those who identified as 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,'" Stacy Boylan said of his daughter's account. "And then he shot and killed them."
Even in the aftermath, Douglas County Sheriff John Hanlin refused to name the shooter during a press conference Thursday night, The Washington Post noted.
"I will not name the shooter," he told reporters. "I will not give him credit for this horrific act of cowardice. Media will get the name confirmed in time... but you will never hear us use it."
President Barack Obama released a statement emphasizing, "thoughts and prayers are not enough," and that now needs to finally be the time to make a change.
"Somehow this has become routine. 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," he said. "We talked about this after Columbine and Blacksburg, after Tucson, after Newtown, after Aurora, after Charleston. It cannot be this easy for somebody who wants to inflict harm on other people to get his or her hands on a gun."
