Roseburg marks one-year anniversary of mass shooting

ROSEBURG, Ore. – To mark the one-year anniversary of one of the deadliest shootings in Oregon, a moment of silence fell Friday over the campus of a community college near Roseburg where the shooting occurred.

Saturday marks one year after Chris Harper Mercer killed nine people and injured nine others at Umpqua Community College before dying in a shootout with police Oct. 1, the Register-Guard reported. To mark the somber occasion the campus held a moment of silence on campus at 10:38 a.m. Friday, the same time of the shooting but one day early.

“We’re really doing a fairly low-key, solemn” remembrance, said college spokeswoman Anne-Marie Levis said. “Campus is still open, it’s still a day of classes, so we’ll be solemn and remember but not have a big thing that day.”

Other memorials were planned in the area for Friday.

Sen. Ron Wyden announced on the Senate floor Wednesday that he and fellow Democrat and Oregon Sen. Jeff Merkley would be in Roseburg for the anniversary.

“This anniversary is going to be a painful reminder of an extraordinarily difficult day,” Wyden said. “We’re so proud of that community we call it `UCC Strong,’ and yet, we want to remember those individuals whose lives were ripped away that day and all in the community who’ve been suffering.”

On the UCC campus, the school is working to move forward. Snyder Hall, the building where the shooting took place, is set to be demolished in mid-October and rebuilt for the next fall. Levis said the new building will likely include an internal reflection garden but there are no official memorials yet on the campus.

“The recommendations from other campuses (where shootings occurred), such as Virginia Tech, was to wait until a year after (the shooting) and then start planning,” Levis said. “Because you really don’t know what you want to do until after a year.”