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“Lucky one” in Oregon shooting speaks about massacre

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ASSOCIATED PRESS
Student Mathew Downing

ROSEBURG, Ore. >> The 18-year-old college student singled out by the shooter as the "lucky one" to survive and deliver a package to law enforcement has spoken for the first time about the massacre.

Mathew Downing says in a written statement Friday that when Christopher Harper-Mercer entered the Umpqua Community College classroom Oct. 1, Downing’s ears were ringing from shots already fired and he thought what was happening "couldn’t be real."

Downing says the shooter had two handguns that he reloaded during the incident and that at one point Harper-Mercer was "firing on people who were just lying there."

One student picked up a desk to defend herself, Downing says, but Harper-Mercer fired at her anyway, hitting her in the leg.

Downing writes that after the shooter was hit by police gunfire, he laid down and shot himself in the head.

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