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Roseburg, Ore. • A pastor whose daughter survived last week's deadly rampage in a college classroom told his congregation Sunday that "violence will not have the last word" in this southern Oregon timber town.
More than 100 people gathered to hear the Rev. Randy Scroggins speak at New Beginnings Church of God, including his 18-year-old daughter Lacey, who cried while sitting in the front row with her mother.
Scroggins said he's been asked whether he can forgive Christopher Sean Harper- Mercer, who killed nine people when he opened fire Thursday at Umpqua Community College.
"Can I be honest? I don't know. That's the worst part of my job. I don't know," said Scroggins, his voice cracking with emotion. "I don't focus on the man. I focus on the evil that was in the man."
Harper- Mercer killed himself after a shootout with police.
There have been conflicting accounts of Harper-Mercer's words inside the classroom, and what he may have meant by them. Some witness accounts have said that after killing people who said they were Christian, he continued to execute others, doing so randomly.
Scroggins told those at his church that his daughter survived because she was lying on the floor and partially covered by the body of a fellow student. The gunman thought his daughter was dead.
Scroggins said the community has "come together with strength and courage and compassion. As if to say, 'We will not be defined by violence.' ... Violence will not have the last word in Roseburg."
Also sitting in the congregation alongside Lacey Scroggins was Mathew Downing, 18, who also survived Thursday's shootings.
Scroggins' daughter Lacey had told him the gunman gave an envelope to Downing and told him to give it to police. Randy Scroggins said the envelope contained a flash drive.
A law enforcement official has previously told The Associated Press a "manifesto" from Harper-Mercer was recovered at the scene. The official spoke on the condition of anonymity.
Scroggins spoke with Downing's mother, Summer Smith, after the Sunday services. He told the AP the gunman told her son " 'go to the back of the room and sit down, facing all of us, and you're gonna watch.' "
As the community comes to terms with its grief, pastors have been at the forefront of helping victims' families cope.
When the Rev. Jon Nutter got a text message Thursday about the shooting and realized how many had been killed or injured, he immediately formed a prayer circle at the Starbucks coffee shop where he was sitting. He then rushed to open his church in Roseburg to anyone in need of counseling and drove to the Douglas County Fairgrounds, where officials were reuniting students with family members.
As bus after bus rolled into the fairgrounds Thursday carrying students, faculty and staff, Nutter and about two dozen other local pastors held uncontrollably crying students, formed prayer circles, listened to eyewitnesses recount the rampage, and watched tearful reunions with parents and spouses.