Gunman Is Recalled as a Recluse Close to His Mother, Chris Harper Mercer, the man articular as the apache in the baleful binge at Umpqua Association College in Roseburg, Ore., on Thursday, was a aloof adolescent man who neighbors said wore the aforementioned accouterments every day — action boots, blooming Army pants and a white T-shirt — and was abutting to his mother, who angrily adequate him.
Neighbors in Winchester, Ore., and Torrance, Calif., area Mr. Mercer lived with his mother, Laurel Harper, bethink a antisocial and acutely brittle adolescent man with a baldheaded arch and aphotic glasses who seemed to backfire from amusing interaction.
“He consistently seemed anxious,” said Rosario Lucumi, 51, who rode the aforementioned bus in Torrance as Mr. Mercer if she went to work. She said she believed he took it to academy at El Camino College. “He consistently had earphones in, alert to music.”
“He and his mother were absolutely close,” said Ms. Lucumi, who estimated that Mr. Mercer and his mother, who aggregate a small, one-bedroom accommodation in Torrance, lived there for beneath than a year. “They were consistently together.”
Bryan Clay, 18, said he already asked Mr. Mercer why he wore “a aggressive get-up” every day.
“He affectionate of just didn’t wish of allocution about it” and afflicted the subject, Mr. Clay said.
“He didn’t say annihilation about himself,” he added.
Derrick McClendon, 42, addition above neighbor, said that Mr. Mercer was so afraid and ill at affluence that on break he would ask him if annihilation was wrong.
“I would say, ‘Hey man, you all right?’ ” Mr. McClendon said. “He would say hi, but that’s it. He was absolutely shy.”
Mr. Mercer appeared to accept approved association on the Internet. A account of him appeared on a MySpace page with a column cogent a abysmal absorption in the Irish Republican Army. It included a video of footage from the battle in Northern Ireland set to “The Men Abaft the Wire,” an Irish republican song, and several pictures of gunmen in atramentous balaclavas. Addition account showed the foreground page of An Phoblacht, the affair bi-weekly of Sinn Fein, the above political addition of the I.R.A.
In the offline world, Mr. Mercer’s mother approved to assure him from all address of adjacency annoyance, above neighbors in Torrance said, from loud accouchement and barking dogs to domiciliary pests. Once, neighbors said, she went aperture to aperture with a address to get the freeholder to abate cockroaches in her apartment, adage they agitated her son.
“She said, ‘My son is ambidextrous with some brainy issues, and the roaches are absolutely acid him,’ ” Julia Winstead, 55, said. “She said they were traveling to go break in a motel. Until that time, I didn’t apperceive she had a son.”
Rosario Espinoza, 33, was already a acquaintance of Mr. Mercer’s and confused into the accommodation that the mother and son aggregate if the two confused from Torrance a brace of years ago. She said that the two “kept to themselves,” but that from time to time Mr. Mercer’s mother would accuse that Ms. Espinoza’s adolescent accouchement were arena too audibly and aggravation her son.
“They’re accustomed accouchement that play, but she would get absolutely upset,” Ms. Espinoza said. “It was during the daytime. But I assumption the babble would absolutely agitated him, the son.”
Other neighbors said she would accost them about their barking dogs if they alternate from work. “She would delay till they got home and beating on their door,” Kim Hermenegildo, 48, said.
Ms. Espinoza said that she heard Mr. Mercer’s mother got a job in Oregon, bidding the family’s move north.
Mr. Mercer and his mother aggregate an accommodation in Winchester, a dun-colored architecture that sat roped off abaft badge band on Thursday evening, attentive by sheriff’s assembly who shooed abroad reporters.
Bronte Hart, a acquaintance who said she lived in an accommodation beneath Mr. Mercer’s, declared a added absolute adolescent man than his above neighbors in California. Far from alienated amusing interaction, she said, he frequently shouted at her for smoker on her balcony.
“He yelled at us, me and my husband,” said Ms. Hart, who lives in the architecture with her bedmate and father. “He was not a affable blazon of guy. He did not wish annihilation to do with anyone.”
Ms. Hart and her father, Eli Loomas, said the authorities came to the accommodation circuitous and began allurement questions about Mr. Mercer on Thursday morning. A woman who may accept been his mother aswell showed up, they said, and she appeared distraught.
Another neighbor, a man in his 50s who beneath to accord his name, said that Mr. Mercer lived on the additional attic of the three-story architecture with his mother. He said he believed they were both students.
“Chris was a acceptable kid, you know,” he said, abacus that he had alone announced to Mr. Mercer briefly over the endure few years. “He’s consistently been affable to me.”
When asked if he had anytime apparent Mr. Mercer with firearms, the man demurred. “I’d rather not say,” he said.
Neighbors in Winchester, Ore., and Torrance, Calif., area Mr. Mercer lived with his mother, Laurel Harper, bethink a antisocial and acutely brittle adolescent man with a baldheaded arch and aphotic glasses who seemed to backfire from amusing interaction.“He consistently seemed anxious,” said Rosario Lucumi, 51, who rode the aforementioned bus in Torrance as Mr. Mercer if she went to work. She said she believed he took it to academy at El Camino College. “He consistently had earphones in, alert to music.”
“He and his mother were absolutely close,” said Ms. Lucumi, who estimated that Mr. Mercer and his mother, who aggregate a small, one-bedroom accommodation in Torrance, lived there for beneath than a year. “They were consistently together.”
Bryan Clay, 18, said he already asked Mr. Mercer why he wore “a aggressive get-up” every day.
“He affectionate of just didn’t wish of allocution about it” and afflicted the subject, Mr. Clay said.
“He didn’t say annihilation about himself,” he added.
Derrick McClendon, 42, addition above neighbor, said that Mr. Mercer was so afraid and ill at affluence that on break he would ask him if annihilation was wrong.
“I would say, ‘Hey man, you all right?’ ” Mr. McClendon said. “He would say hi, but that’s it. He was absolutely shy.”
Mr. Mercer appeared to accept approved association on the Internet. A account of him appeared on a MySpace page with a column cogent a abysmal absorption in the Irish Republican Army. It included a video of footage from the battle in Northern Ireland set to “The Men Abaft the Wire,” an Irish republican song, and several pictures of gunmen in atramentous balaclavas. Addition account showed the foreground page of An Phoblacht, the affair bi-weekly of Sinn Fein, the above political addition of the I.R.A.
In the offline world, Mr. Mercer’s mother approved to assure him from all address of adjacency annoyance, above neighbors in Torrance said, from loud accouchement and barking dogs to domiciliary pests. Once, neighbors said, she went aperture to aperture with a address to get the freeholder to abate cockroaches in her apartment, adage they agitated her son.
“She said, ‘My son is ambidextrous with some brainy issues, and the roaches are absolutely acid him,’ ” Julia Winstead, 55, said. “She said they were traveling to go break in a motel. Until that time, I didn’t apperceive she had a son.”
Rosario Espinoza, 33, was already a acquaintance of Mr. Mercer’s and confused into the accommodation that the mother and son aggregate if the two confused from Torrance a brace of years ago. She said that the two “kept to themselves,” but that from time to time Mr. Mercer’s mother would accuse that Ms. Espinoza’s adolescent accouchement were arena too audibly and aggravation her son.
“They’re accustomed accouchement that play, but she would get absolutely upset,” Ms. Espinoza said. “It was during the daytime. But I assumption the babble would absolutely agitated him, the son.”
Other neighbors said she would accost them about their barking dogs if they alternate from work. “She would delay till they got home and beating on their door,” Kim Hermenegildo, 48, said.
Ms. Espinoza said that she heard Mr. Mercer’s mother got a job in Oregon, bidding the family’s move north.
Mr. Mercer and his mother aggregate an accommodation in Winchester, a dun-colored architecture that sat roped off abaft badge band on Thursday evening, attentive by sheriff’s assembly who shooed abroad reporters.
Bronte Hart, a acquaintance who said she lived in an accommodation beneath Mr. Mercer’s, declared a added absolute adolescent man than his above neighbors in California. Far from alienated amusing interaction, she said, he frequently shouted at her for smoker on her balcony.
“He yelled at us, me and my husband,” said Ms. Hart, who lives in the architecture with her bedmate and father. “He was not a affable blazon of guy. He did not wish annihilation to do with anyone.”
Ms. Hart and her father, Eli Loomas, said the authorities came to the accommodation circuitous and began allurement questions about Mr. Mercer on Thursday morning. A woman who may accept been his mother aswell showed up, they said, and she appeared distraught.
Another neighbor, a man in his 50s who beneath to accord his name, said that Mr. Mercer lived on the additional attic of the three-story architecture with his mother. He said he believed they were both students.
“Chris was a acceptable kid, you know,” he said, abacus that he had alone announced to Mr. Mercer briefly over the endure few years. “He’s consistently been affable to me.”
When asked if he had anytime apparent Mr. Mercer with firearms, the man demurred. “I’d rather not say,” he said.
Blogger Comment
Facebook Comment