A profile of the suspect is beginning to emerge as authorities search for a motive.

[Thursday's shooter] left an extensive digital footprint on blog sites and other online forums, including a profile picture taken from his MySpace account showing him holding a gun.

On one Internet site, called Spiritual Passions, he described himself as "not religious, but spiritual." He didn't like "organized religion" and said, "I'm looking for someone to share my beliefs."

He used similar language when he said online he was looking for a woman who was "pagan, wiccan, not religious, but spiritual."

The father of a wounded victim told CNN that [the shooter] reportedly ordered students to stand up and asked if they were Christians.

"And they would stand up and he said, 'Good, because you're a Christian, you're going to see God in just about one second. And then he shot and killed them," CNN's Stacy Boylan said.

The rampage started late Thursday morning in the small town of Roseburg, some three hours south of Portland, Oregon.

"We heard shoots immediately, took cover, went down and heard multiple shots—a lot of screaming," Amber Adams recalled. (Photo via KMTR)

Officers on the scene confronted and engaged the 26-year-old shooter. There was an exchange of gunfire and the gunman was shot dead, but not before he murdered nine victims, including himself. Four weapons were recovered from the scene.

Within hours of the shooting, President Barack Obama called a press conference to demand new gun laws, saying that gun violence is "something we should politicize."

"Somehow this has become routine," Obama said in a White House briefing Thursday. "The reporting is routine, my response here at this podium ends up being routine, the conversation in the aftermath of it—we've become numb to this."

The FBI and other law enforcement officials are now combing through Mercer's emails and online activity trying to figure out a motive.

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