(REUTERS/Steve Dipaola)
The man believed to have opened fire at a community college in southwest Oregon on Thursday has been identified.
The Associated Press cites a government official who says the gunman was 26-year-old Chris Harper Mercer, who reportedly exchanged fire with the police at Umpqua Community College in Roseburg, Oregon, on Thursday.
Several Southern California news outlets have interviewed people who say they are family members of Mercer.
Eric Leonard, a reporter with the radio station KFI AM 640, spoke on Thursday night with a man who identified himself as Mercer's father. Ian Mercer says he's "shocked as anyone" about what happened.
NBC Los Angeles spoke with a woman identified as Mercer's stepsister who called Mercer a "nice guy." "He put everyone before himself," she said. "It doesn't sound right because he wanted everyone to be happy."
(REUTERS/Steve Dipaola)
A police investigator seen at a residential location after a mass shooting at Umpqua Community College in Roseburg, Oregon, on Thursday.
The news station says neighbors in the Los Angeles-area suburb of Torrance — where Mercer reportedly lived with family at one time before moving to Oregon — called Mercer "quiet" and said he often wore "camouflage pants and boots."
Social-media accounts belonging to a man with Mercer's name appeared to show an affinity for Irish Republican Army propaganda.
The Daily Beast points to the same accounts, where the man described himself as someone who dislikes "organized religion."
According to some witness accounts, the Umpqua Community College gunman asked people to identify their religious affiliations before opening fire Thursday morning.
(REUTERS/Steve Dipaola)
Douglas County Sheriff John Hanlin speaking to the media after a mass shooting at Umpqua Community College in Roseburg, Oregon, on Thursday.