ROSEBURG, Ore. (AP) – The gunman had already shot several students at close range when he stood inches from Lacey Scroggins and demanded she stand up.
It was only the fourth day of community college for the 18-year-old aspiring surgeon and she was facing a test no education could prepare her for as she laid face down, her head tucked between her outstretched arms among dead and dying classmates.
Scroggins could hear someone gurgling and she felt the weight of fellow student Treven Anspach, 20, pressed against her body as his blood flowed into her clothing. Anspach would be among the dead.
She prayed and played dead, frozen to the floor. The killer stepped over her and shot someone else.
In a rampage lasting about 10 minutes, Christopher Harper-Mercer took nine lives Thursday morning in chilling fashion before killing himself as officers closed in, placing the small town of Roseburg among settings infamous for inexplicable violence.