| genuinegirly |
12-06-2007 08:52 AM |
Omaha Shootings
Just saw the news story on CNBC this morning, and thought I'd check CNN to get the details. Here's the word:
Quote:
Chief: Shooter cased store, came back with AK-47
Story Highlights
NEW: Police chief: Shooter entered store twice, second time with AK-47
NEW: Six victims were store employees, two were customers
Gunman showed rifle to landlord night before mall rampage
Panicked holiday shoppers flee for cover; "I was scared to death," witness says
OMAHA, Nebraska (CNN) -- The man who killed eight people and then himself at a Nebraska mall Wednesday came into the store and looked around before leaving and returning with an assault rifle, Omaha's police chief said Thursday.
Mall security officers noticed Robert A. Hawkins, 19, of Bellevue, Nebraska, briefly enter the Von Maur department store at Omaha's Westroads Mall, Chief Thomas Warren said.
Hawkins left the store and returned six minutes later concealing something -- presumably the AK-47 assault rifle used in the rampage -- under a hooded sweatshirt, Warren said.
Hawkins turned right, took an elevator to the third floor and immediately started shooting in the store's customer service area, Warren said.
Six store employees and two customers were fatally wounded before Hawkins turned the gun on himself, the chief said. The five women and three men who died ranged in age from 24 to 66, he said.
Five other people were injured, and two of them were in critical condition, hospital officials said.
Nebraska Gov. Dave Heineman ordered that flags throughout the state be lowered to half-staff through Sunday.
Warren said Hawkins apparently chose his victims randomly and spoke little or not at all while firing about 30 rounds.
The shootings sent panicked holiday shoppers fleeing for cover.
"It was just so loud, and then it was silence," said witness Jennifer Kramer, who hid behind a clothing rack. "I was scared to death he'd be walking around looking for someone else."
Debora Maruca Kovac, Hawkins' landlord, said she found a suicide note after getting a phone call from Hawkins about 1 p.m., just minutes before the shootings.
"He basically said how sorry he was for everything," Maruca Kovac said of the note. "He didn't want to be a burden to people and that he was a piece of s--- all of his life and that now he'd be famous."
She said Hawkins was a friend of her sons and "reminded me of a pound puppy that nobody wanted." He came to live with her family about a year and a half ago, telling her he could not stay with his own family because of "some issues with his stepmother."
She described Hawkins as well-behaved, although "he had a lot of emotional problems, obviously."
Maruca Kovac told the Omaha World-Herald that Hawkins showed her an assault rifle the night before the rampage, but she wasn't alarmed.
The shootings began about 1:42 p.m. (2:42 p.m. ET).
Seven people were found dead at the scene by officers who arrived six minutes later; two others, a male and a female, died after being transported to Creighton University Medical Center, said Fire Chief Robert Dahlquist.
Warren said Hawkins' body and the AK-47 with SKS 7.66 mm ammunition were found on the store's third floor.
Maruca Kovac told CNN that Hawkins left the house Wednesday about 11 a.m., and called the house about two hours later, sounding upset.
"He just said he wanted to thank me for everything I'd done for him ... and he was sorry," Maruca Kovac said. He told her he had gotten fired from his job at a McDonald's restaurant, she said.
"I said, 'Come home and we'll talk about it,' " she recounted. "He said, 'It's too late.' He said he'd left a note explaining everything."
Kramer told CNN she heard at least 25 shots.
"I looked at my mom and said, 'We need to get out of here. Those are gunshots,' " Kramer said. "I just grabbed my mom and we ran to the back of the men's department and hid in some pants racks."
Mall employee Charissa Tatoon said a man by an escalator near her was heard saying he was calling 911. See a map of where the shooting took place »
"Immediately after that, the shooter shot down from the third floor and shot him on the second floor," she said.
Maruca Kovac said Hawkins had been through a rough patch recently.
"When he first came to live with us, he was in the fetal position and chewed his fingernails all the time," she said. But she said she thought he was improving, as he had gotten a job, a haircut and a girlfriend.
However, she said Hawkins and his girlfriend had broken up in the last couple of weeks, and he had taken it hard. Then he got fired from McDonald's on Wednesday.
A friend of Hawkins' said he hadn't thought Hawkins was capable of such violence.
"No. No way," Shawn Saunders, who had known Hawkins for about two-and-a-half years, told CNN. "... The Robbie I knew was a lot like me, and I just never thought he'd do something like that.
"He was the one guy, you know, if people would be getting in a fight he'd be trying to break it up," Saunders said. "If there were arguments amongst our friends or groups, he was kind of like the calm, cool and collected one." Watch how Saunders learned Hawkins was the shooter »
President Bush had visited Omaha on Wednesday before the shooting.
"The president is deeply saddened by the shootings in Omaha," White House press secretary Dana Perino said. "His thoughts and prayers are with the victims and their families."
CNN's Kevin Bohn contributed to this report.
|
:eek: I'm horrified that this could happen with someone who was described as the "calm, cool and collected one" of a group of friends. Were there even warning signs? Doesn't look like it - other than showing his guardian a gun the night before. What did she think then? Did she assume it was fake?
Do you see shootings like this one and those at Columbine and Virginia Tech as a trend among disgruntled young men, or just a singular instance to be thrown in with all the rest of the horrible things of this world?
I definitely see a trend. I can't assume conspiracy theory or underground movement... but more a terrible behavioral trend of mistreated young people trying to be heard. What can we do to improve things? Were shootings this run-of-the-mill in the past, or is this a recent trend? |
