USA Massacre: The Shooter’s Motives Remain Mysterious

Published in Le Vif
(Belgium) on 2 October 2015
by (link to originallink to original)
Translated from by Megan Cohen. Edited by Helaine Schweitzer.
The motives of the shooter who shot nine people on a college campus in the western United States on Thursday remained mysterious, but the minimal descriptions we have display him as a man of few words.

The police surveyed “door to door in the neighborhoods near the college and the shooter's apartment seeking clues,” the local county sheriff declared Friday morning. “They went to the shooter’s house. It's really too early to tell what the motive was,” he continued on CNN.

The sheriff refuses to release the name of the shooter, who died during an exchange of gunfire with police at the scene. According to the media, the shooter was Chris Harper Mercer, a young, 26-year-old man. Interrogated by journalists about whether the shooter had been killed by the police because he was “armed to the teeth” and had shot at the officials, the sheriff responded “that is correct.”

The sheriff did not confirm the accounts reporting that the shooter demanded the students tell him whether they were Christians before he shot them one by one in their classrooms. The police prohibited access to the shooter’s reported apartment with yellow security tape. Mary Moore, a 57-year-old nurse’s aide, lives in the apartment just above Chris Harper Mercer’s apartment. She revealed feeling “upset, shocked” at the thought of living alongside the killer.* Other neighbors described Harper Mercer to The New York Times as being an anxious and laconic young man who lived with his mother. Military boots, military-style pants, and a white t-shirt, he wore these in the same fashion every day, they reported to The New York Times. “He was not a friendly type of guy. He did not want anything to do with anyone,” declared one of the neighbors, Brote Hart.

*Editor's note: These comments, although accurately translated, could not be independently verified.


Les motifs du tireur qui a abattu neuf personnes sur un campus de l'ouest des Etats-Unis jeudi restaient mystérieux mais des bribes de biographies font apparaître un jeune homme taciturne.

La police enquête "porte à porte, inspecte les quartiers pour tenter de trouver plus d'information sur cet acte horrible", a déclaré le shérif du comté local vendredi matin. "Ils se sont rendus chez le tireur. Mais encore une fois, il est trop tôt pour dire quel était son motif", a-t-il poursuivi sur CNN. Le shérif refuse de prononcer le nom du tireur, qui est mort lors d'un échange de coups de feu avec les forces de l'ordre sur les lieux du crime. Selon les médias, il s'agit de Chris Harper Mercer. Un jeune homme de 26 ans. Interrogé par les journalistes sur le fait de savoir si le tueur avait été abattu par la police parce qu'il était "armé jusqu'aux dents" et tirait sur les agents, le shérif a répondu "c'est correct". Il n'a pas confirmé les témoignages racontant que le tueur avait demandé aux étudiants de dire s'ils étaient chrétiens avant de les abattre, un à un dans leur salle de classe. La police a interdit l'accès à l'appartement présumé du tireur avec du ruban jaune de sécurité. Mary Moore, aide-soignante de 57 ans, vit dans l'appartement juste au-dessus de celui de Chris Harper Mercer. Elle a confié se sentir "bouleversée, choquée" de penser qu'elle habitait à côté de l'auteur d'un massacre. D'autres voisins ont décrit Harper Mercer au New York Times comme étant un jeune homme anxieux et taciturne qui vivait avec sa mère. Bottes militaires, pantalon de treilli et t-shirt blanc: il s'habillait tous les jours de la même façon, ont-ils raconté au New York Times. "Ce n'est pas un type du genre très amical. Il ne voulait rien avoir à voir avec personne", a déclaré l'une d'elles, Bronte Hart.
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