ROSEBURG, Ore. -- A pastor whose daughter survived last week's deadly rampage in a college classroom told his congregation on Sunday that "violence will not have the last word" in the southern Oregon timber town.
More than 100 people gathered to hear pastor Randy Scroggins speak at New Beginnings Church of God, including his 18-year-old daughter Lacey, who sat in the front row and wiped away tears.
Scroggins said he's been asked whether he can forgive Christopher Sean Harper-Mercer, who killed nine 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 police arrived on the scene, officials said.
Scroggins told those gathered 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."
Sitting in the congregation alongside Lacey Scroggins was 18-year-old Mathew Downing, who also survived Thursday's shootings.
Scroggins had told her father that 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 said a "manifesto" from Harper-Mercer was recovered at the scene. The official wasn't authorized to speak publicly and spoke on the condition of anonymity.
Randy Scroggins spoke with Downing's mother, Summer Smith, after the Sunday services at New Beginnings. He told The Associated Press that the gunman told Smith's son, "'Go to the back of the room and sit down, facing all of us, and you're gonna watch.'"
When pastor Jon Nutter got a text message Thursday about the shooting and learned how many had been killed or injured, he immediately formed a prayer circle at Starbucks, 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 reunited students with family members.
As bus after bus rolled into the fairgrounds on 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 that killed nine and watched tearful reunions with parents and spouses.
The pastors also comforted parents and spouses who waited for the last bus of students. Five hours after the shooting rampage, a dozen remaining family members were ushered into a room at the fairgrounds, said Nutter, who was also in the room. Officials notified them there would be no more buses coming.
At Sunday services, many pastors planned to talk about the shootings.
"It's important for us to just listen," said Grant Goins, an associate pastor at Roseburg Alliance Church. "We don't know how to grieve; we want to pretend death is not coming. We tell people it's OK to cry, to give others a hug, to sing 'Amazing Grace.'"
Immediately after the shooting, the multidenominational Douglas County Evangelical Fellowship, a group of about 40 Roseburg-area churches, sprang into action. An ecumenical prayer service took place at a Catholic church hours after the shooting. Other churches led prayers throughout the weekend. Pastors offered grief counseling at their sanctuaries, the fairgrounds and at a Roseburg nonprofit. They are also preparing for funerals.
Information for this article was contributed by Manuel Valdes of The Associated Press.
A Section on 10/05/2015