Oregon Shooting Survivor Spared By Gunman To Give Statement, First He Has To Speak With Victims’ Families
The Oregon shooting survivor spared by the gunman lived because the killer wanted him to give a statement to police after answering victim’s families questions.
A Umpqua Community College student who survived the Oregon school shooting was identified as 18-year-old Mathew Downing. The teen was inside the English class when 26-year-old Christopher Harper-Mercer allegedly stormed the room with an arsenal of weapons, shot and killed the professor, Larry Levine, and eight students, injuring nine others.
According to the New York Daily News, the Oregon shooter gave Downing and envelope containing a manifesto explaining his motives in one of the deadliest school shootings in recent years. The gunman told the terrified teen he was “the lucky one” whose life would be spared so he could pass on the letter to authorities.
No information about the alleged manifesto has been released and Matthew Downing is speaking to the Oregon shooting victims’ families before making a public announcement. Chilling details of what happened inside professor Levine’s classroom have surfaced now that he Oregon shooting survivors are speaking with the media.
— Mark Baker (@MarkBakerRG) October 6, 2015
Two female students who also survived the murders said the Oregon shooter used religion as an excuse to methodically kill his victims in cold blood. As previously reported by the Inquisitr, 18-year-old classmates, Lacey Scroggins — who survived by playing dead under a mortally wounded victim — and Anastasia Boylan — who was shot in the back — both claimed the Umpqua shooter asked his victims if they were Christian and shot those who answered yes in the head.
For Mathew Downing, delivering this manifesto is conflicting and he says the experience has been hard to process. The 18-year-old, a high school student who was taking classes through a program at Umpqua Community College, told the NYDN he’s answering all the questions he possibly can from families of the victims of the Oregon shooting.
“They don’t watch the news or anything, so this is the only information they’ve gotten,” Downing said. “It’s just hard. It’s not easy to talk about.”
The Oregon shooter gave Downing an envelope containing a manifesto and announced he was “the lucky one” who would be spared. At this time, the teen is getting ready to make a public statement about what happened when the gunman stormed the classroom on October 1.
Mathew Downing’s mother, Summer Smith, said her son is struggling with what to say in his statement and added the time her son is spending with victims’ families of the Oregon shooting is helping him cope.
“It’s turning out to be a little harder for him. He wants to be as forthcoming about what he saw as possible…He’s just trying to get through it like everyone else.”
“That’s what is getting him through right now, knowing he’s helping other people — and it’s giving him a little purpose.”
“He’s just letting them ask him questions, and if he’s comfortable answering them, he is.”
Accounts from other Oregon shooting survivors paint a terrifying picture of what exactly happened inside their classroom and explain how some of the students survived being gunned down. Smith also said her son described the killer as having no mercy and shooting those who did what he asked.
Mathew Downing’s mom also said her son told her the Oregon shooter asked victims’ religion and he thought he would die when he was asked to stand up. Instead, the vicious killer told Downing to sit in the back of the room and watch what was happening.
Police said Wednesday the Umpqua Community College shooter killed himself in front of surviving students after two plain clothes policemen, who were not wearing bulletproof vests, ran towards the scene of the carnage, confronted the gunman, and injured him during an ensuing shootout.
[Photo by Scott Olson/Getty Images]
