9 dead in Nebraska mall shooting By OSKAR GARCIA, Associated Press Last updated: 6:42 a.m., Thursday, December 6, 2007 OMAHA, Neb. -- The teenager carried his rifle into the mall, passing shoppers and decorations.
A department store employee was pressing a suit for a customer. A woman was making a quick stop to buy Christmas presents before picking up her son from school. Christmas music played. The gunman stopped on the third floor and cut through the sounds with gunfire. Shoppers and employees at the Westroads Mall scrambled for cover in dressing rooms, clothing racks, offices and storage areas. Eight people were killed and five wounded before the shooter ended the horror by taking his own life. He left behind a note that read, in part, "Now I'll be famous." Robert A. Hawkins, 19, had recently split with his girlfriend and been fired from McDonald's. He had a criminal record and had been kicked out of his parents' house. Police Chief Thomas Warren said the shooting appeared to be random and that the dead included five females and four males, including the gunman. Warren would not release the victims' identities Wednesday night and gave no motive for the attack, but promised more details in a news conference scheduled for Thursday morning. Hawkins was kicked out by his family about a year ago. He moved in with a friend's family, and Debora Maruca-Kovac and her husband welcomed him into their home and tried to help him. "When he first came in the house, he was introverted, a troubled young man who was like a lost pound puppy that nobody wanted," Maruca-Kovac told The Associated Press. She told the Omaha World-Herald that the night before the shooting, Hawkins and her sons showed her an SKS semiautomatic Russian military rifle -- the same type used in the shooting. She said she thought the gun belonged to a member of Hawkins' family. She said she didn't think much of it -- the gun looked too old to work. Records in Sarpy and Washington counties showed Hawkins had a felony drug conviction and several misdemeanor cases filed against him, including an arrest 11 days before the shooting for having alcohol as a minor. He was due in court in two weeks. Maruca-Kovac said Hawkins was fired from his job at a McDonald's this week and had recently broken up with a girlfriend. She said he phoned her at about 1 p.m. Wednesday, telling her he had left a note. She tried to get him to explain. "He said, 'It's too late,'" and hung up, she told CNN. She then called Hawkins' mother. In the note, which was turned over to authorities, Hawkins wrote that he was "sorry for everything" and would not be a burden on his family anymore. More ominously, he wrote, "Now I'll be famous." Maruca-Kovac went to her job as a nurse at the Nebraska Medical Center, where victims of the shooting soon began to arrive. The first 911 call came in at 1:42 p.m., and the shooting was already over when police arrived six minutes later, authorities said. "We sent every available officer in the city of Omaha," Sgt. Teresa Negron said. "They came to the mall in lights and sirens."The World-Herald reported that the gunman had a military-style haircut and a black backpack, and wore a camouflage vest. Hawkins opened fire in a Von Maur store, part of a Midwestern chain. Mickey Vickory, who worked in the store's third-floor service department, said she heard shots and went with coworkers and customers into a back closet, emerging about a half-hour later when police shouted to come out with their hands up. As police led them to another part of the mall for safety, they saw the victims. "We saw the bodies and we saw the blood," she said. Keith Fidler, another Von Maur employee, said he heard a burst of five to six shots followed by 15 to 20 more rounds. Fidler said he huddled in the corner of the men's clothing department with about a dozen other employees until police yelled to get out of the store. Witness Shawn Vidlak said the shots sounded like a nail gun. At first he thought it was noise from construction work at the mall. "People started screaming about gunshots," Vidlak said. "I grabbed my wife and kids. We got out of there as fast as we could." Nebraska Medical Center spokeswoman Andrea McMaster said the hospital had three victims from the mall shooting, including Fred Wilson, 61, who was in critical condition early Thursday with a bullet wound to his chest. Another critically wounded victim was at Creighton University Medical Center, spokeswoman Lisa Stites said. On Wednesday night, police used a bomb robot to access a Jeep Cherokee left in the mall parking lot that authorities believe belonged to Hawkins. Officers had seen some wires under some clothing, but no bomb was found. President Bush was in Omaha on Wednesday for a fundraiser, but left about an hour before the shooting. "Having just visited with so many members of the community in Omaha today, the president is confident that they will pull together to comfort one another," White House press secretary Dana Perino said. The sprawling, three-level mall has more than 135 stores and restaurants. It gets 14.5 million visitors every year, according to its Web site. It was the second mass shooting at a mall this year. In February, nine people were shot, five of them fatally, at Trolley Square mall in Salt Lake City. The gunman, 18-year-old Sulejman Talovic, was shot and killed by police.
Whatever lead up to this.....my heart breaks......REALLY!!
When the INSANE are running the ASYLUM In individuals, insanity is rare; but in groups, parties, nations and epochs, it is the rule. -- Friedrich Nietzsche
“How fortunate for those in power that people never think.” Adolph Hitler
Another shooter who was taking medication for depression gets suicidal and ends up murdering people. I still feel that these drugs have something to do with what happens to these people when they take these drugs long term.
Another shooter who was taking medication for depression gets suicidal and ends up murdering people. I still feel that these drugs have something to do with what happens to these people when they take these drugs long term.
They are probably close to the drugs that Manson and his possee liked to engage in.......the human mind and spirit is a dangerous place to mess with......that is why there is NO SUCH THING AS PSYCO-THERAPY......who can know the human mind or heart.......
...you are a product of your environment, your environment is a product of your priorities, your priorities are a product of you......
The replacement of morality and conscience with law produces a deadly paradox.
STOP BEING GOOD DEMOCRATS---STOP BEING GOOD REPUBLICANS--START BEING GOOD AMERICANS
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