NBC NEWS – At least 10 people were killed and seven others were injured when a gunman who demanded to know his victims' religions opened fire Thursday morning on the campus of Umpqua Community College in southwest Oregon, witnesses and authorities said.
The gunman — whom law enforcement sources identified to NBC News as Chris Harper Mercer, 26 — was killed in a firefight with Douglas County sheriff's deputies, Sheriff John Hanlin said.
Recommended Videos
State Attorney General Ellen Rosenblum and other officials earlier had said 13 people were dead after the events near Roseburg, where the shootings were called in at 10:38 a.m. (1:38 p.m. ET). But investigators in Roseburg said they couldn't confirm that number, and law enforcement officials told NBC News it was likely that some victims were counted multiple times amid the confusion of the scene.
The FBI, the U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives and the U.S. Marshals Service all joined numerous state and local agencies at the scene. Oregon Gov. Kate Brown was scheduled to brief reporters shortly.
Mercy Medical Center in Roseburg said it was treating nine patients and was expecting four more. Sacred Heart General Hospital in Eugene, a major trauma center, told NBC News it was expecting three patients by helicopter.
Students and faculty members were being bused to the Douglas County Fairgrounds.
Students told NBC News that the shootings occurred in a classroom building called Snyder Hall.
"I was walking into class, and I heard what sounded like a car backfiring," Courtney Rennie, 23, second-year human services student, told NBC News.
"You don't even think that's somebody shooting a gun," Rennie said, but "I kept envisioning someone is going to come around the corner and and shoot the windows out."
Another Umpqua student, Larry Howell, was on his way to class when he saw students running around him, he told NBC News.
"I turned around. I heard 'active shooter,' and I didn't need to be told twice," he said.
Howell said he checked in with his friends to make sure they were safe.
"Everybody is reaching out to one another and checking on everyone. We don't know which one of our colleagues are down," he said.
Umpqua is a two-year school with about 3,300 full-time students and 16,000 part-time students. It started offering classes in 1961.