8A
THE DAILY ASTORIAN • FRIDAY, OCTOBER 2, 2015
Wildlife: Volunteers still needed
Continued from Page 1A
Drawn to birds
Chris Pietsch/The Register-Guard
Amanda Calvert, a former student at Umpqua Communi-
ty College, helps to spell the initials of the school with
candles during a vigil at Stewart Park in Roseburg, after a
fatal shooting at the school Thursday.
Shooting: Sheriff
Hanlin chose not to
say shooter’s name
“All he ever did was put ev-
eryone before himself, he want-
“I know the folks there,” ed everyone to be happy,” she
said Hamilton, the former pres- told KCBS-TV.
ident of Klamath Community
Hanlin, the sheriff, said
College. “I know the admin- Thursday that he was not go-
istration there. I worked with ing to say the shooter’s name
them on some projects. I was because that’s what he would
with a group or presidents and have wanted.
board members at a meeting
“I will not name the shoot-
(during the shooting), and it er. I will not give him the credit
was very emotional.”
he probably sought prior to this
7KHNLOOHUZDVLGHQWL¿HGDV KRUUL¿FDQGFRZDUGO\DFW´VDLG
Chris Harper Mercer, accord- a visibly angry Hanlin.
LQJ WR D JRYHUQPHQW RI¿FLDO
Hundreds went to a candle-
who was not authorized to light vigil Thursday night, with
speak publicly and provided the many raising candles as the
name on condition of anonym- hymn “Amazing Grace” was
ity. The gunman died following played.
a shootout with police. Police
Sam Sherman, a former
were not saying whether they student, said the school helped
knew of any motive.
broaden his opportunities.
Mercer lived in an apartment
“That’s all I could think
complex in nearby Winchester, about today. There’s 10, 9 kids
where investigators found a who won’t get those doors
QXPEHU RI ¿UHDUPV 'RXJODV opened,” he said.
County Sheriff John Hanlin said
5RVHEXUJ LV LQ 'RXJODV
)ULGD\ 'HWDLOV DERXW WKH QXP- County, a politically conser-
ber and type of guns would be vative region west of the Cas-
released later, he said.
cade Range where people like
A neighbor, Bronte Harte, WR KXQW DQG ¿VK %XW LW¶V QR
told The Associated Press that stranger to school gun violence.
Mercer “seemed really un- A freshman at the local high
friendly” and would “sit by school shot and wounded a fel-
himself in the dark in the balco- low student in 2006.
ny with this little light.”
After Thursday’s shooting,
Harte said
anguished
a woman she
parents and
believed to
other relatives
‘I will not
be Mercer’s
rushed to sur-
name the
mother also
viving
stu-
lived upstairs
dents.
shooter. I will J e s s i c a
and was “cry-
ing her eyes not give him Chandler was
out” Thurs-
desperately
day.
the credit
seeking infor-
Social pro-
mation about
¿OHV OLQNHG WR he probably
her 18-year-
Mercer sug-
old
daugh-
sought
gested he was
ter, Rebecka
fascinated by
prior to this Carnes.
the IRA, frus-
“I don’t
horrific and know where
trated by tra-
ditional orga-
she is. I don’t
cowardly
nized religion
know if she’s
and tracked
wounded,”
act.’
other
mass
Chandler said.
shootings.
Carnes’
John Hanlin
T h e r e
best
friend
Douglas County sheriff
didn’t seem
told
Chan-
to be many re-
dler that her
cent connections on the social GDXJKWHUKDGEHHQÀRZQE\KH-
media sites linked to Mercer, licopter to a hospital.
with his MySpace page just
Students described utter
showing two friends.
fear and panic after hearing the
In addition to the MySpace shots.
page, Mercer appeared to have
Sarah Cobb, 17, was in a
at least one online dating pro- next-door classroom. She heard
¿OH D WRUUHQWV VWUHDPLQJ DF- a shot. A teacher said they need-
count and a blog.
ed to get out, and the class ran
On a torrents streaming out the door as she heard two
site and blog that appeared to more shots.
belong to Mercer, posts refer-
“I was freaking out. I didn’t
enced multiple shootings and know what to think, what to
downloads included several do,” she said.
KRUURU¿OPVDQGDGRFXPHQWD-
Before the Roseburg shoot-
ry on a mass shooting at Sandy ing, a posting on the mes-
Hook Elementary School in sage-board site 4chan included
Newtown, Connecticut. A blog a photo of a crudely drawn
post urged readers to watch the frog used regularly in Internet
online footage of Vester Flana- memes with a gun and warned
gan shooting two former col- other users not to go to school
leagues on live TV in Virginia, Thursday in the Northwest.
while another lamented mate-
The messages that followed
rialism as preventing spiritual spoke of mass shootings, with
development.
some egging on and even offer-
A MySpace page that ap- ing tips to the original poster.
peared to belong to Mercer It was unclear if the messages
included several photos and were tied to the shooting be-
graphics of the Irish Republi- cause of the largely anonymous
can Army as well as a picture of nature of the site.
0HUFHUKROGLQJDULÀH
Investigators went door to
Mercer previously lived in door in the neighborhoods near
the Los Angeles-area suburb the college and the shooter’s
of Torrance with his mother. apartment seeking clues, Han-
Neighbors there recalled him as lin said Friday.
uncommunicative.
The sheriff has been vo-
His father, Ian Mercer, said cal in opposing state and fed-
late Thursday that it’s been a eral gun-control legislation.
“devastating day” for him and In 2013, Hanlin sent a letter
his family, and he has been to Vice President Joe Biden
talking to police and the FBI after the shooting at a New-
about the shooting. He spoke town, Connecticut, elementary
to KABC-TV and several other school, declaring that he and
media outlets gathered outside his deputies would refuse to
his house in Tarzana, Califor- enforce new gun-control re-
nia.
strictions “offending the consti-
Step-sister Carmen Nesnick tutional rights of my citizens.”
said the shooting didn’t make
The Daily Astorian con-
sense.
tributed to this report.
Continued from Page 1A
“Sharnelle told me
‘they’re all attitude and
no gratitude,’” said Laurel
Berblinger, a volunteer with
the center for more than six
years, noting the nicks and
cuts she’s received handling
birds. “And they should be.
They’re wildlife, not pets.”
Berblinger and Saranpaa
organize morning shifts of
volunteers who make their
way down the row of cag-
es, feeding, medicating and
transferring seabirds to re-
ceive time in the water to
exercise and condition their
waterproof plumage for
floating on the high seas.
By all accounts, the cen-
ter has been a success. It
grew over the years to take
in between 2,000 and 3,000
birds a year, and last year,
Saranpaa said, managed to
release 65 percent of them
back into the wild.
“The gulls are reward-
ing to release, because
we almost never get to re-
lease them,” Saranpaa said.
“They get hit by cars, and
their bones shatter like cra-
zy.”
Coralie Crayne, a volun-
teer for the past year at the
center, said she originally
came on a tour to appease
Beck, a friend of hers.
Crayne said she originally
expected volunteering to be
like housekeeping. But like
other volunteers, she was
surprised to find herself
immediately handling and
feeding a sometimes exotic
cross section of more than
100 bird species alongside
Fee and Saranpaa, the cen-
ter’s two certified animal
rehabilitation specialists.
“I didn’t know anything
about birds,” said Ami
Kreider, a part-time librar-
ian and forest firefighter
who read about the center in
an article. “I guess I’ve al-
ways been concerned about
humans’ impact on the en-
vironment. It just felt like
something concrete I could
do.”
Edward Stratton/The Daily Astorian
Josh Saranpaa, the new director of the Wildlife Center of the North Coast, watches
a red-shouldered hawk fly by. Saranpaa said it is only the second such hawk he has
seen in nearly eight years of working with the center.
Edward Stratton/The Daily Astorian
A surf scoter, a type of sea
duck, rehabilitates at the
Wildlife Center of the North
Coast, one of the only cen-
ters specializing in seabirds.
Joshua Bessex/The Daily Astorian
Common murres stretch their wings after being released
by Laurel Berblinger near the maritime memorial Monday.
CELEBRATION FOR FEE
There will be a celebration of Sharnelle Fee from
3 to 5 p.m. Oct. 10 at the Warrenton Community
Center, at 170 S.W. Third St.
In transition, in need
“We have enough vol-
unteers for transport (to the
center), but we need more
volunteers to come work
with wildlife,” Saranpaa
said. “We’re trying to have
an afternoon shift, so we
can get every cage clean. It
takes a special person will-
ing to cut fish, get bit, feed
birds.”
The center also needs
donations to help fix the
water filtration system in
its enclosures that hasn’t
worked in seven years.
Saranpaa said the stagnant
water with bird feces is
hurting the birds’ ability
Joshua Bessex/The Daily Astorian
A common murre swims
away into the Columbia
River after being released.
to develop waterproofing,
which can be deadly on the
ocean.
Fee’s will is being han-
dled by her only surviving
relative, a brother, who
could not be reached for
comment. But Saranpaa
said he is confident the
property will stay a center
honoring Fee’s legacy.
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