UPDATE: What Oregon College Shooter Said Before Mass Killing

UPDATED with new comments from sheriff on number of dead and wounded and the identification of gunman.

A gunman opened fire Thursday at a rural Oregon community college killing 10 people and wounding seven others.

The shooting took place at Umpqua Community College in the southwest part of the state. Douglas County Sheriff John Hanlin said that he believed there were 10 dead, calling the toll the “best, most accurate information we have at this time.” He would not say whether the gunman was included in the death toll.

Kourtney Moore, 18, was in the classroom that the shooter targeted. She told the News-Review Today, that she saw her teacher get shot in the head. Then the gunman entered the classroom and ordered everyone onto the ground. Later, the shooter asked people to stand up and state their religion before he started firing.

Brady Winder, 23, was in the room next door when the shooting started.

“They left “like ants, people screaming, “Get out!” Winder told the News-Review Today.

The shooter was killed, said the sheriff said during a press conference. Hanlin said that the shooting was a “huge shock,” to the small community of Roseburg, Oregon.

Law enforcement officials identified the gunman Thursday night as Chris Harper Mercer, and said he had three weapons.

“My heart is heavy as details of today’s shooting become available,” Gov. Kate Brown said earlier in a statement. “While it is still too early to know all of the facts, the effects of an incident such as this one are long-lasting. Please join me in keeping the victims and their families, as well as first responders, in your thoughts.”

President Barack Obama, in an impassioned speech Thursday night, made arguably his most pointed remarks yet about the need for stricter gun laws.

“This is a political choice that we make to allow this to happen every few months in America,” Obama said. “We collectively are answerable to those families who lose their loved ones because of our inaction.”

You can see video of his full remarks below:

The Umpqua Community College campus has been evacuated since the shooting. Staff and students were taken to Douglas County Fairgrounds, Hanlin said.

Sgt. Dwes Hutson, a Douglas County Sheriff’s Office spokesman, told The Oregonian that officers responded around 10:40 a.m. to reports of a shooting at the college.

At around 11:30 a.m. nine ATF agents, seven from Portland and two from Eugene, started their approach to the scene, reported. They were responding to a 11:29 call from a supervisor.

Several of the wounded were taken to Eugene and Springfield hospitals, Jim Godbold, director of communications at PeaceHealth in the Eugene-Springfield, told The Oregonian.

“We’re trying to prepare for a half dozen or more victims,” Godbold said.

The hospital activated its trauma-response team and cleared all elective surgeries in what Godbold described as a “disaster level” response.

John Blackwood, a professor at the college, tweeted during the shooting.

Umpqua Community College, has a student body of about 3,300 students and is located in Roseburg, Oregon, nearly three hours south of Portland.

The community college was established in 1964 and opened in 1967. Roseburg is a town off Interstate 5 of about 21,000 people and calls itself “The Timber Capital of the Nation.”

This is a developing story. Refresh this page for updates.