Oregon shooting: Vigil's silence is broken by a call for unity

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A prayer circle is held Oct. 5 at Snyder Hall, the site of the Umpqua Community College mass shooting.

(Marcus Yam / Los Angeles Times)

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Despite the campus being taped off by police, Umpqua Community College reopened a few days after the shooting.

(Marcus Yam / Los Angeles Times)

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Law enforcement officials stand guard outside Snyder Hall, enclosed by tarp.

(Marcus Yam / Los Angeles Times)

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Mathew Downing, right, a survivor of the Umpqua Community College mass shooting, gets a hug as soon as he arrives back on campus.

(Marcus Yam / Los Angeles Times)

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Sharon Kirkham and Kristapher Yates visit a memorial on campus.

(Marcus Yam / Los Angeles Times)

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Students, faculty and staff members linger in Snyder Hall as a sense of normalcy returns to the reopened campus.

(Marcus Yam / Los Angeles Times)

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Umpqua Community College President Rita Cavin at a news conference on campus.

(Marcus Yam / Los Angeles Times)

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Umpqua Community College has reopened to faculty and staff on Oct. 5 after the mass shooting shut down the campus in Roseburg, Ore. A woman brings flowers to the school.

(Marcus Yam / Los Angeles Times)

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People embrace at the school.

(Marcus Yam / Los Angeles Times)

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Local and national church groups, along with community members, gather on Oct. 4 to pray at a makeshift memorial outside Snyder Hall, the building at Umpqua Community College in Roseburg, Ore., where the mass shooting occurred.

(Marcus Yam / Los Angeles Times)

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Prayers at Umpqua Community College.

(Marcus Yam / Los Angeles Times)

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Outside Snyder Hall.

(Marcus Yam / Los Angeles Times)

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At the New Beginnings Church of God in Roseburg, Ore., on Oct. 4, Pastor Randy Scroggins hugs a survivor of the Umpqua Community College mass shooting.

(Marcus Yam / Los Angeles Times)

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Lacey Scroggins, 18, center left, and her mother, Lisa, weep as they listen to Pastor Randy Scroggins talk about the Umpqua Community College mass shooting, during Sunday service at the New Beginnings Church of God.

(Marcus Yam / Los Angeles Times)

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Community members sing songs of praise during the service.

(Marcus Yam / Los Angeles Times)

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Pastor Randy Scroggins gives his sermon.

(Marcus Yam / Los Angeles Times)

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Christina and Kyle Workman attend a vigil on Oct. 3 at Riverbend Park in Winston, Ore., for victims of the mass shooting.

(Marcus Yam / Los Angeles Times)

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Residents mourn shooting victims at a vigil in Riverbend Park in Winston, Ore.

(Marcus Yam / Los Angeles Times)

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Friends of Rebecka Ann Carnes, one of the Umpqua Community College shooting victims, mourn at a vigil in Riverbend Park in Winston, Ore.

(Marcus Yam / Los Angeles Times)

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Friends of Rebecka Ann Carnes, an Umpqua Community College shooting victim, pray before a memorial service called ‘Prayers for Roseburg,’ at Riverbend Park in Winston, Ore.

(Marcus Yam / Los Angeles Times)

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Community members hold a vigil at Riverbend Park in Winston, Ore., for victims of the mass shooting.

(Marcus Yam / Los Angeles Times)

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Residents hold a vigil during a memorial service called ‘Prayers for Roseburg’ at Riverbend Park in Winston, Ore.

(Marcus Yam / Los Angeles Times)

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Heidi Wickersham, left, wipes away tears while consoling her sister, Gwendolyn Wickersham, a UCC student, at a vigil in Riverbend Park in Winston, Ore.

(Marcus Yam / Los Angeles Times)

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Dinah Johnson, a UCC student who was on campus in a biology lab during the mass shooting, weeps at a vigil in Riverbend Park in Winston, Ore.

(Marcus Yam / Los Angeles Times)

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Mourners gather for an emotional memorial service in Winston, Ore., about 8 miles from Roseburg.

(Marcus Yam / Los Angeles Times)

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Toni New, a chaplain with the Billy Graham Rapid Response Team, leads a prayer with friends of Roseburg shooting victim Rebecka Ann Carnes at a memorial service in nearby Winston, Ore.

(Marcus Yam / Los Angeles Times)

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Douglas County Sheriff John Hanlin at a news conference Saturday, speaking about first responders to the shooting scene.

(Marcus Yam / Los Angeles Times)

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Robin Griffith of Portland pays her respects to the victims Saturday while in Roseburg.

(Marcus Yam / Los Angeles Times)

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The Roseburg High School marching band performs in Roseburg to honor the victims and their families and to raise money for a relief fund.

(Marcus Yam / Los Angeles Times)

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Bonnie Schaan, center, walks away from reporters on Saturday after updating them on her 16-year-old daughter, Cheyeanne Fitzgerald, who is in critical condition after the mass shooting at Umpqua Community College in Roseburg, Ore.

(Marcus Yam / Los Angeles Times)

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Portland, Ore., residents Dave and Robin Griffith stop by a makeshift memorial for victims of the attack at Umpqua Community College, in Roseburg.

(Marcus Yam / Los Angeles Times)

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A message of healing is displayed at a local business after a fatal shooting at Umpqua Community College in Roseburg, Ore.

(Rich Pedroncelli / Associated Press)

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Students and staff of Umpqua Community College arrive at the Douglas County Fairgrounds, where they were offered counseling and a bus ride back to campus to pick up their possessions.

(Scott Olson / Getty Images)

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Jennifer Hoffman, right, led family and friends of Emilio Hoffman, a Reynolds High School shooting victim, in spelling out words including “hope” and “love” with rocks in Roseburg on Friday.

(Marcus Yam / Los Angeles Times)

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Michael Garwood, a wildland firefighter who most recently worked the Valley fire, pays his respects at a memorial along the road leading to Umpqua Community College.

(Marcus Yam / Los Angeles Times)

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People board buses to retrieve their vehicles at Umpqua Community College after the mass shooting.

(Marcus Yam / Los Angeles Times)

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Douglas County Sheriff John Hanlin answers questions on the shooting at a press conference in Roseburg, Ore.

(Marcus Yam / Los Angeles Times)

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Portland Police Sgt. Peter Simpson, left, and Douglas County Sheriff John Hanlin stand in front of photos of three of the victims of the Umpqua Community College shooting. In the photos, from left, are Quinn Cooper, 18, Lucas Eibel, 18, and Jason Johnson, 33.

(Rich Pedroncelli / AP)

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Signs of support are posted around Roseburg, Ore.

(Marcus Yam / Los Angeles Times)

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Reporters copy photographs of three of the victims of the mass shooting at Umpqua Community College that were displayed at a news conference, Friday, Oct. 2, 2015, in Roseburg, Ore.

(Rich Pedroncelli / AP)

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Signs of support are posted in Roseburg, Ore.

(Marcus Yam / Los Angeles Times)

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Douglas County Deputy Sheriff Greg Kennerly, left, and Oregon State Trooper Tom Willis, stand guard outside the apartment building, where alleged Umpqua Community College gunman Chris Harper Mercer lived.

(Rich Pedroncelli / Associated Press)

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A search and rescue vehicle is seen parked at the entrance to Umpqua Community College in Roseburg, Oregon.

(JOSH EDELSON / AFP/Getty Images)

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After an emotional press conference, Oregon Gov. Kate Brown hugs first responders.

(Marcus Yam / Los Angeles Times)

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The police lines have come down around the apartment building where the Umpqua Community College shooter Chris Harper Mercer lived, in Winchester, Oregon.

(Marcus Yam / Los Angeles Times)

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Mourners at a vigil for victims of the college shooting in Roseburg, Ore., on Oct. 1.

(Josh Edelson / AFP/Getty Images)

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Sunrise along the North Umpqua River with Umpqua Community College in the background, Friday morning. Nine people were killed and seven injured at Umpqua Community College when Chris Harper Mercer went a shooting rampage Thursday, October 1, 2015.

(Marcus Yam / Los Angeles Times)

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Media outlets at Umpqua College Road and Hwy 99. where the road to the campus remains closed Friday morning.

(Marcus Yam / Los Angeles Times)

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Signs, flowers and candles are seen at a vigil.

(Johs Edelson / AFP/Getty Images)

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Residents of Roseburg, Ore., hold a candlelight vigil for victims of the shooting at Umpqua Community College on Oct. 1.

(Michael Lloyd / Getty Images)

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Residents of Roseburg, Ore., gather at an Oct. 1 candlelight vigil for the victims of the shooting at Umpqua Community College earlier in the day.

(Michael Lloyd / Getty Images)

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Ian Mercer, father of Oregon shooting suspect Chris Harper-Mercer, talks to the news media outside his home on Jovan Street in Tarzana. “It’s been a devastating day for me and my family,” he said.

(Mel Melcon / Los Angeles Times)

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Bryan Clay, 18, in Torrance talks about his former neighbor Chris Harper Mercer, identified as the gunman in the Oregon shooting.

(Bob Chamberlin / Los Angeles Times)

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Alicia Santiago, 63, and her husband, Luis, 67, outside their home on Jovan Street in Tarzana. Their neighbor is believed to be the father of the Oregon gunman.

(Mel Melcon / Los Angeles Times)

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President Obama speaks at the White House about the shooting. “This is a political choice that we make — to allow this to happen every few months in America. We collectively are answerable to those families who lose their loved ones because of our inaction,” he said.

(Susan Walsh / Associated Press)

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A bullet casing is marked at the scene of a deadly shooting at Umpqua Community College in Roseburg, Ore., on Thursday.

(Michael Sullivan / Associated Press)

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Bystanders console each other on a road leading to the Umpqua Community College campus in Roseburg, Ore. following a deadly shooting at the school on Thursday.

(Chris Pietsch / Associated Press)

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Friends and family are reunited with students at the local fairgrounds after a mass shooting at Umpqua Community College in Roseburg, Ore., on Thursday.

(Ryan Kang / Associated Press)

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People gather at a roadblock near the entrance to Umpqua Community College, in Roseburg, Ore., after a fatal campus shooting attack on Oct. 1.

(Ryan Kang / Associated Press)

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Friends and family are reunited with students at the local fairgrounds after a deadly shooting at Umpqua Community College in Roseburg, Ore. on Oct. 1. (Ryan Kang / Associated Press)

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A woman speaks on her cellphone as friends and family are reunited with students at the local fairgrounds after a deadly shooting at Umpqua Community College in Roseburg, Ore. on Oct. 1.

(Ryan Kang / Associated Press)

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People wait for information at the local fairgrounds after a deadly shooting at Umpqua Community College, in Roseburg, Ore., on Oct. 1.

(Ryan Kang / Associated Press)

By Matt PearceStaff Writer

Oct. 2, 2015 5:30 AM PT

reporting from Roseburg, Ore. — There was no good way to find out. Alexa Evans, 20, was about to leave home for Umpqua Community College when she got a strange text message from a friend that didn’t make sense.

The next text was terrifyingly clear: “A girl was shot.”

For the next few hours after a mass shooting at the school Thursday, the young students of UCC messaged, called, Facebooked and tweeted one another, checking for signs of life. If Evans’ friends didn’t answer her calls, she kept calling. If she didn’t have their phone numbers, she prayed for them.

FULL COVERAGE: Oregon college shooting >>

“You just hope you don’t hear a name you don’t want to hear,” Evans said of the victims.

So as Evans and dozens of other UCC students converged on Stewart Park with a crowd of hundreds for an 8 p.m. vigil, it was as much in search of information as comfort. They nodded in recognition and relief, and bounced a basic question off one another like sonar: Are you OK?

When public officials’ remarks at the vigil started and swiftly ended, an awkward silence fell over the crowd, with people unsure of whether to go or stay. Then, a UCC shooting survivor, Cassandra Welding, and another young woman suddenly yelled out into the silence that had fallen over the hundreds, “I am UCC!”

There was a beat of silence, then someone else in the crowd called out in response.

“I am UCC!”

“WE are UCC!”

Welding huddled with a group of about eight young women in a circle, including Evans, holding candles and wrapping their free arms around each other. Some of the women sobbed as someone beat a solemn drum somewhere out in the crowd.

“Do you know anybody who went to UCC?” a young man standing nearby asked the young women.

“We all do,” several of them quickly replied.

The young women veered between sobs and giggles and silence and talk as other members of the crowd filled the night with song and prayer. They remembered their losses; they tried to dab each other’s eyes without burning each other with their candles.

“I can’t reach, sorry.”

“So much love, let’s bring this love in.”

“It’s hard, we all go to school with these people.”

“One minute they’re there, one minute they’re not there.”

“Don’t set me on fire.”

The group’s mood had improved until the moment a young boy came to the microphone set up in the park and led the vigil in a prayer.

“I pray that” -- the boy stopped for several seconds before continuing -- “everyone that is not with us is in heaven, Lord.”

Sobs erupted from the group of young women again.

After the moment finally subsided, one of them added, “He’s so cute.”

The women lingered together for a while, along with hundreds of residents peacefully milling in the park. Someone laid out candles to spell out UCC on the ground, but several of the candle holders caught on fire and had to be stamped out indecorously. A group of kids sat cross-legged on the ground, held hands and prayed fervently.

“I’ll remember this moment for the rest of my life,” Welding said, looking around. “I don’t want to leave yet.”

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