Two community college associations said Thursday they were "deeply saddened" by news of a mass shooting at Umpqua Community College in Roseburg, Ore., that left 10 people dead, including the shooter.

According to news reports, 26-year-old Chris Harper Mercer walked into a campus building and started shooting college staff and students. In addition to the nine people he reportedly killed, at least seven others were injured. Mercer was killed in a shootout with police.

The American Association of Community Colleges and the Association of Community College Trustees issued a joint statement shortly after news of the shooting broke. The organizations acknowledged that "sadly, these types of occurrences are not unheard of at community colleges."

"We are committed to supporting on-campus safety and security measures at our colleges, with a priority emphasis on prevention whenever possible," the associations said. "While campus safety is of the utmost priority, due to their open nature, college and university campuses are susceptible to these types of events."

The associations noted that there are still many questions about what happened at Umpqua and it may take a while before there are answers.

"In the meantime, we stand with our friends at Umpqua Community College and offer them our full support," the groups said. http://bit.ly/1O8FAOK

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