A student spared from death by the Umpqua Community College shooter formerly lived in Vancouver.
Mathew Downing, 18, survived the deadly rampage that erupted at the college on Oct. 1 several miles north of Roseburg, Ore.
Prior to living in Roseburg, Downing lived in Vancouver for at least eight years. He attended Washington Elementary School from 2005-2007, Discovery Elementary between 2009 and 2011 and began attending Skyview High School in 2011 before transferring in 2013, according to Vancouver Public Schools.
According to his Facebook page, Downing also went to Phoenix Charter School in Roseburg.
Downing witnessed the shooter, Christopher Harper-Mercer, kill Downing’s teacher, Lawrence Levine, and two other classmates, before pausing and turning to Downing.
“I believe he said ‘you with the glasses stand up,’ ” Downing’s mother, Summer Smith, said in an interview with CNN. “He said at that time, he felt that was it.”
But instead of shooting Downing, the gunman handed him an envelope that contained a flash drive and told Downing to give it to police.
“He then sent (Downing) to sit in the back of the room, facing the room, to watch what was going on,” Smith said in the interview. “Mathew said he froze. He didn’t make a single move, he was afraid to look away, that if he did anything to make the shooter notice him, that he would be shot. So he just sat there.”
The shooter went on to kill six more people, with some witnesses saying he asked people if they were Christian, firing regardless of the answer, and executing people at random. After exchanging gunfire with police, the shooter turned the gun on himself, officials said.
Downing and Smith attended a service Sunday at New Beginnings Church of God in Roseburg, along with more than 100 people to hear pastor Randy Scroggins speak. Scroggins’ daughter, 18-year-old Lacey, also survived the shooting. Scroggins told the churchgoers that “violence will not have the last word” in their Southern Oregon timber town.
Smith said in the CNN interview that Downing is still processing the horror that he witnessed, and that the memory is too fresh to speak to reporters. Though Smith said in the interview that she didn’t want to say her son’s last name, Downing’s identity was made public during Sunday’s church service and his name was widely circulated.
“He’s different, he’ll never feel the same,” Smith said in the interview. “He lived and for that he feels guilty.”
The Associated Press contributed to this story.
