| View previous topic :: View next topic |
| Author |
Message |
simplesimon
Moderate Poster
Joined: 08 Nov 2007
Posts: 249
|
 Posted: Thu Dec 06, 2007 12:41 am Post subject: Omaha shooting |
 |
|
From BBC news website at 23:21 GMT, removed from the update at 00:04 GMT:
There have been differing accounts of exactly where the shooting took place.
Some witnesses said it happened inside the upscale Von Maur department store, inside the shopping centre. Others said the gunman was positioned on a balcony.
"All we know was people were running and screaming down the hallway by Von Maur saying there was a shooting, and then [police] locked us down," she said
And other changes of nuance.
From Stratfor:
Omaha's WKMT television quoted a witness as saying he saw police apprehend a man who was hiding under a bus stop bench outside the mall and was dressed in camouflage.
CNN's headline (on Google news) said "Police search for suspect in shooting at Omaha mall", but by the time I clicked on the link, there was no reference in the story to police "searching" for the shoooter.
From the Grud:
President Bush was in town Wednesday for a fundraiser in Omaha, but left about an hour before the shooting.
Mmm. I wonder whether we'll soon hear about how he had "an empty look about him, almost as if he was not aware..." etc.
Whatever. Please look at this: Preservation of evidence
http://www.nineeleven.co.uk/board/viewtopic.php?t=12585&sid=3ad5b84e31 52f72696d7b80b6718ad08
|
|
| Back to top |
|
 |
simplesimon
Moderate Poster
Joined: 08 Nov 2007
Posts: 249
|
| Posted: Thu Dec 06, 2007 2:31 am Post subject: |
|
|
More strange changes:
The Stratfor report has disappeared from Google News. Searching Google for "wkmt omaha" does give the Stratfor page 1st, 2nd result is:
Witnesses say gunman fired 35 to 40 shots inside Omaha mall
WKMT-Channel 3 in Omaha, meanwhile, quoted witness Todd Trimpe as saying he saw police apprehend a man, dressed in camouflage, who was hiding under a ...
www.freep.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20071205/NEWS07/71205056/0/CO L23 - 4 hours ago - Similar pages
...but surprise surprise, the linked to page does not mention Mr. Trimpe, or that the apprehended man was HIDING...
|
|
| Back to top |
|
|
Mark Gobell
On Gardening Leave
Joined: 24 Jul 2006
Posts: 4529
|
| Posted: Thu Dec 06, 2007 8:43 am Post subject: |
|
|
Omaha World Herald
| Quote: | Published Thursday | December 6, 2007
Omaha's Deadliest Hour: 19-year-old man kills eight and himself at Westroads Mall
BY HENRY J. CORDES
WORLD-HERALD STAFF WRITER
• Reader submissions
• Troubled teen wanted to die with notoriety
• Statements from government officials about the shooting
• Westroads Mall a landmark in Omaha
• Victim, shot in the arm, describes shooting scene
• World-Herald Video: Reactions at Westroads
• Audio: Omaha Police Department press conferences
• Von Maur employee recounts ordeal
• Memorial brings light to dark day
• Concerned people wait for news about loved ones
• Shoppers tell of their brush with evil
• Bush visit allowed quick police action
• 'We're just in complete shock,' store president says
• World-Herald Web site swamped after shooting
• Police search crime scene, gunman's residence
• Shooting at Westroads Mall - Dec. 5, 2007
A man dressed in camouflage and armed with a rifle opened fire among holiday shoppers in an Omaha department store Wednesday, killing eight people, wounding at least five others and sending hundreds into terrified panic.
The 19-year-old shooter died of a self-inflicted gunshot wound. His body was found on the third floor of the Von Maur at Westroads Mall.
It was the deadliest shooting spree in Nebraska since Charles Starkweather's 1958 rampage.
Witnesses described the carefree sounds of holiday music suddenly punctuated by rapid gunfire shortly before 2 p.m.
They related horrific scenes: multiple people gunned down in the store's customer service department, others on a floor below shot as they were looking up an escalator toward the chaos.
What happened• Nine dead, including the gunman, and five injured at Westroads Mall. Victims were taken to Creighton University Medical Center and the Nebraska Medical Center, where two were in critical condition.
• Shooting is worst single case of violence in state history.
• Shooting appears to have been confined to Von Maur. Most of it occurred on the second and third floors.
• Police took call at 1:42 p.m., and first officer arrived on the scene in six minutes. Officer found one shooting victim in the store.
• Omaha police sent "every available officer in the city of Omaha to the mall," according to Sgt. Teresa Negron, an Omaha police spokeswoman.
• Omaha Fire Department transported seven victims to the hospital, two of whom died en route or after arrival.
• Omaha Mayor Mike Fahey and Police Chief Thomas Warren were out of town.
"The shots wouldn't stop," said Von Maur shopper Carol Padon.
The shooter was identified as Robert A. Hawkins. Witnesses at the mall described the gunman as having a military-style haircut, wearing a camouflage vest and a black backpack and carrying a rifle.
Police recovered an SKS assault rifle believed to have been used by the gunman.
The man was found dead in the store's customer service area, apparently shooting himself before officers arrived. The events appeared related to a suicide note found in Sarpy County around the time of the shootings.
"The shooter is deceased, and it appears to be a self-inflicted gunshot wound," said Sgt. Teresa Negron, an Omaha police spokeswoman. She said police believe the gunman acted alone.
Dozens of Omaha police, Douglas County sheriff's deputies, FBI agents and officers from area police departments sealed off and closed the mall. Rescue workers were seen carrying multiple gurneys into the store.
The five wounded people were being treated at Creighton University Medical Center and the Nebraska Medical Center. Two were reported to be in critical condition.
Once the shooting started, employees and customers rushed to hide wherever they could, in storerooms and other rooms off the shopping floor.
Renee Toney was working in the gift wrap area behind the customer service counter when the gunman came off a third-floor elevator and began firing shots into the ceiling.
"He was moving very fast," she said. The shots "were very, very fast, I would say closer to 30 (shots) in all."
A supervisor called for everyone to go into a stockroom behind the customer service area, and she rushed there, the others just feet behind her.
But she was the only one of her immediate co-workers to make it to the stockroom.
"None of them made it out," Toney said. "I was up front, and everybody except me was shot. It's a blur. I don't even know how I got to the stockroom. I was the closest one to the stockroom. Within seconds, they were shot right behind me."
A supervisor later told Toney that the man had said, "Open the safe." One of the employees moved to open the safe, Toney said. "She never made it to the safe. He shot her before she made it."
When police later arrived and ushered Toney out, she said she saw blood all over the floor and as many as six bodies, some on top of each other.
Mickey Vickroy, who was wrapping gifts at customer service but out of sight of the service counter, said she heard gunshots and some yell, "Gun!"
About a dozen customer service employees ran back into a storage area.
Roxanne Philip, another customer service worker, said the gunshots were so close that it sounded like they were being fired right next to her. She said she took cover and was scared "because I thought I would be next."
Philip said she never saw the shooter, but as she left the customer service area after police arrived, she saw that a woman on the other side of the customer service counter had been shot and appeared to be dead. She said she thought her boss had been shot because she heard him moaning.
Chuck Wright, a Von Maur employee, said a co-worker who also worked in customer service described hearing the shooting break out and people running. The co-worker saw what appeared to be a customer who had been shot and heard a co-worker in customer service yelling for help.
Someone yelled, "Hold on, Fred, we'll get to you."
Another co-worker of Wright's described standing on the second floor near the escalator and looking up toward the commotion. She then saw a man with a gun lean over a third-floor railing. He then shot a man standing next to her in the head.
Shoppers leaving the mall near Von Maur were instructed to walk out with their hands over their heads. Many of them were hysterical and crying. Most of them were women.
Others anxiously waited outside the store. One woman said she was awaiting word of whether her mother was safe.
Police and rescue personnel set up a meeting point at a nearby hotel to meet with family members of the victims.
Westroads Mall will remain closed Thursday following the shooting at the mall's Von Maur store.
"Our concern right now is for the victims and their families," said David Keating, director of corporate communications for General Growth Properties, which owns Westroads.
Keating said Westroads likely will reopen on Friday.
A Von Maur employee who had left the store said one customer was shot while going down the escalator.
Padon said she was shopping on the second floor of the store in the men's wear department when she heard what sounded like 15 to 25 shots. As she hid in a back room, Padon said, "I was so busy praying that it's really hard to tell the details."
She said police later arrived and escorted her from the store. As she was leaving, she said, she saw a man in his 40s on the floor with a serious gunshot wound. He did not appear to be breathing, she said.
Marvelene Sturgeon of Council Bluffs said she and her daughter were getting ready to leave the mall through Von Maur when the scene turned chaotic.
"People started running out of the door yelling, 'They're shooting, they have guns,' and we heard a lot of shots," the 73-year-old said.
Police said the call of an active shooting at the mall first came in at 1:42 p.m., and it took six minutes for the first officer to arrive at the scene. Police located a victim soon after entering the store.
At 2:12 p.m., officers located the apparent shooter dead from a gunshot wound.
A Papillion-La Vista Public Schools spokeswoman said Hawkins had attended district schools since kindergarten, but withdrew from Papillion-La Vista High School in March 2006.
A suicide note delivered to authorities appears to be directly related to the killing spree.
Within 30 minutes of the shooting, a woman contacted the Sarpy County Sheriff's Office with a note she had found. Capt. Rolly Yost said "it could be interpreted as suicidal." He declined to release its contents or say why authorities considered it related to the shooting.
The woman was not aware of the Westroads killings, which had occurred about a half-hour earlier.
The eight deaths mark the deadliest shooting spree in Nebraska since Charles Starkweather almost a half century ago killed 10 Nebraskans in a multiple-day rampage. He also killed a 11th victim before his capture in Wyoming.
It's also believed to be the deadliest single shooting incident in state history. In October 1975, Erwin Charles Simants shot and killed six members of a family in Sutherland, Neb.
This report contains material from the Associated Press and World-Herald staff writers Steve Jordon, Christopher Burbach, Lynn Safranek, Judith Nygren, Kevin Cole and Tom Shaw contributed to this report.
Contact the Omaha World-Herald newsroom
Copyright ©2007 Omaha World-Herald®. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, displayed or redistributed for any purpose without permission from the Omaha World-Herald.
Mall shootings across the country
April 2007
Ward Parkway Center, Kansas City, Mo.
A 51-year-old man kills two people in a parking lot and in the Ward Parkway Center in Kansas City, Mo., before dying in a police shootout.
February 2007
Trolley Square, Salt Lake City
An 18-year-old Bosnian immigrant used a handgun and shotgun that left five shoppers dead and four wounded.
December 2006
Boynton Beach Mall, near Miami
A 21-year-old involved in a fight opened fire in a mall crowded with Christmas Eve shoppers, killing one.
November 2006
Westfield Annapolis Mall; Annapolis, Md.
An 18-year-old shot and wounded two people, including a U.S. Secret Service Agent, during a fight.
May 2006
Crossroads Mall, Oklahoma City
A teen gunman wounded another teen in a fight before being killed by an off-duty officer.
November 2005
Tacoma Mall; Tacoma, Wash.
A 20-year-old armed with a semi-automatic rifle walked through the mall shooting randomly, wounding six people, one critically.
February 2005
Hudson Valley Mall; Kingston, N.Y.
A 24-year-old man armed with an AK-47 replica fired randomly until running out of ammunition, wounding two.
|
_________________
The Medium is the Massage - Marshall McLuhan. |
|
| Back to top |
|
|
Mark Gobell
On Gardening Leave
Joined: 24 Jul 2006
Posts: 4529
|
| Posted: Thu Dec 06, 2007 8:45 am Post subject: |
|
|
Troubled Teen Wanted to Die with Notoriety
| Quote: | Published Thursday | December 6, 2007
Troubled teen wanted to die with notoriety
BY TOM SHAW AND KEVIN COLE
WORLD-HERALD STAFF WRITER
• Police search crime scene, gunman's residence
• Police search crime scene, gunman's residence
Robert A. Hawkins made his wish come true Wednesday.
"I'm going to be famous now," the 19-year-old wrote in a suicide note before killing eight, wounding five and killing himself Wednesday afternoon at the Von Maur department store at Westroads Mall.
The shooting was the worst single day of violence in state history.
Hawkins, known as Robbie, was an emotionally troubled high school dropout who lost his job Wednesday and his girlfriend in the last two weeks, friends said.
The family he lived with said they saw no signs that he would hurt anyone other than himself.
Hawkins, 5-foot-7 and 128 pounds, moved in with his friend Will's family last year in the Quail Creek subdivision in Bellevue, said Will's mother, Debora Maruca.
The boys liked to target- and skeet-shoot at her family's cabin.
The night before the shooting, Hawkins and her sons showed Maruca an SKS semiautomatic Russian military rifle. She said she thinks the gun belonged to a member of Hawkins' family.
She didn't think much of it - it looked too old to work.
Hawkins was earning about $800 a month working at this nearby McDonald's.
Hawkins took the weapon to the mall Wednesday afternoon, where he killed eight people and himself.
"I think, 'Why didn't I do something? What could I have done?'" Maruca said.
Hawkins' parents divorced when he was 3. He had spent time in foster care.
In Sarpy County in 2005, Hawkins admitted to a drug charge. He also pleaded guilty that year to disorderly conduct in Washington County and later was arrested for not paying the $100 fine.
Hawkins' father, Ronald, had been concerned about his son, said neighbor John Hubbard, a captain at the Douglas County Jail.
Ronald Hawkins asked Hubbard earlier this year if he would take the youth on a tour of the jail to help set him straight.
Hubbard said the jail has a policy against such tours.
Hubbard said Hawkins seemed like a "typical teenager" who played basketball and hung out with friends.
Mary Glass was Hawkins' foster mother for about a year. Her son, Ben Glass, 31, remembered Hawkins as an average kid who enjoyed video games. With his curly brown hair and big glasses, Hawkins had kind of a "nerdy" look, he said.
"He was a quiet kid," Ben Glass said. "He wasn't a whole lot of trouble."
Hawkins was a student at Papillion-La Vista High School "off and on," Principal Jim Glover said.
He was disciplined for skipping classes but never showed anger toward staff or students, Glover said.
"He was pretty low-key, laid-back," he said.
Hawkins quit school in March 2006, his senior year. Maruca said he later gotten earned a GED.
Hawkins had been hopping between homes of friends when Maruca offered to let him move in with her family in August 2006.
"He was like a lost pound puppy nobody wanted," she said.
The first few months, he seemed nervous and withdrawn, sometimes curling into a fetal position.
He was mannerly, expressing appreciation and asking how her day had been.
"We were eating like vultures," she said, "and he's saying, 'Please pass this,' and thanking me for every meal.'"
She thought his life had started to come together.
Hawkins was earning about $800 a month working at a nearby McDonald's and had started to pay rent in an effort to become more responsible.
He had gotten his driver's license in July, and on Nov. 28 he registered a 1995 green Jeep Grand Cherokee Laredo.
"I really thought he was doing better," she said. "He had a little spark in his eye."
Then in the past two weeks, he broke up with his girlfriend.
He was ticketed Nov. 24 on suspicion of contributing to the delinquency of a minor and two alcohol charges.
About 1 p.m. Wednesday, Hawkins called Maruca's son, upset, and Maruca got on the line.
Hawkins thanked the family members for everything they had done for him. He said the family wouldn't have to worry about him any more.
Maruca asked if he had been fired from his job.
He said he had. He said he had been accused of stealing $17 from his till. (McDonald's management has declined to comment.)
They told him, Robbie, it's not that bad. Just come home. It'll be OK, Maruca said.
"He must have felt like everything he touched turned to nonsense," she said.
After the call, they checked his bedroom and found his note, which said things like, "I'm a piece of *, but I'm going to be famous now."
Several ammunition clips lay nearby. The gun was gone.
They had gotten a call like this from him once before and worried he was going to commit suicide.
They didn't think he would hurt anyone else.
Maruca's son Will went looking for Hawkins. Maruca called Hawkins' mother, who picked up the note and took it to the Sarpy County Sheriff's Office.
Maruca, not knowing what else to do, went to work.
She is a nurse in the recovery room at the Nebraska Medical Center.
There she heard news reports of the mall shooting.
"I just got this sick feeling," she said. "I thought, 'Oh, my God, I hope this is not Robbie.'"
When Hawkins' mother arrived at the Sheriff's Office, she did not know about the mall shooting that had happened about 30 minutes earlier, Sarpy County Capt. Rolly Yost said.
Maruca said she had no idea why Hawkins picked Von Maur.
"They're completely innocent victims," she said of those he shot. "He had no connection."
Wednesday night, Sarpy County deputies guarded the Maruca home and another Bellevue home, believed to be his mother's residence, until officers arrived with search warrants.
Douglas County crime lab technicians, Omaha police, FBI agents and Sarpy County deputies began searching Maruca's home just before 10 p.m.
Among the media live trucks and split-level homes in her hilly subdivision, Maruca and a friend hugged and sobbed.
"That was Robbie," she said.
"I can't believe it," they kept telling each other.
"I can't f-ing believe it."
World-Herald staff writers Leia Baez, Kevin Cole, Nancy Gaarder, Jeffrey Robb, Michaela Saunders and Tom Shaw contributed to this report. |
_________________
The Medium is the Massage - Marshall McLuhan.
Last edited by Mark Gobell on Thu Dec 06, 2007 12:53 pm; edited 2 times in total |
|
| Back to top |
|
|
Mark Gobell
On Gardening Leave
Joined: 24 Jul 2006
Posts: 4529
|
| Posted: Thu Dec 06, 2007 8:49 am Post subject: |
|
|
Police: Nine killed in shooting at Omaha mall, including gunman
| Quote: | (CNN) -- A 19-year-old gunman who killed eight people and then himself Wednesday at the Westroads Mall in Omaha, Nebraska, left a suicide note, police said.
art.2048.hawkins.school.jpg
Police have identified the gunman as Robert A. Hawkins, 19, of Nebraska.
Five other people were injured, and two of them were in critical condition, hospital officials said.
Chief Thomas Warren of the Omaha Police Department called the shooting "premeditated," but said it "appears to be very random and without provocation."
Surveillance cameras may have captured the shooting, Warren said.
"We'll be here throughout the night; it's a very extensive crime scene," he said.
Police identified the gunman as Robert A. Hawkins of Nebraska.
They have recovered an SKS assault rifle and the suspect's vehicle.
Debora Maruca Kovac, Hawkins' landlord who found the suicide note, said he wrote he was sorry for everything and did not want to be a burden to anyone any longer.
Video Watch landlord describe phone call from shooter »
Hawkins said in the note he loved his friends and family, but "he was a piece of s--- all his life, and now he'll be famous," she told CNN.
She said Hawkins was a friend of her sons and "reminded me of a lost puppy that nobody wanted."
He came to live with her about a year and a half ago, telling her he could not stay with his own family because of "some issues with his stepmother and him."
She described Hawkins as well-behaved, although "he had a lot of emotional problems, obviously."
The shootings began about 1:42 p.m. Seven people were found dead at the scene by officers arriving six minutes later; two others, a male and a female, died after being transported to Creighton University Medical Center, said Fire Chief Robert Dahlquist.
A Creighton spokeswoman said a second female was undergoing surgery and was in critical condition Wednesday afternoon.
Three other people were taken to the University of Nebraska Medical Center. One, a 61-year-old man who sustained a chest wound after being shot in the armpit, underwent surgery and remained in critical condition in the intensive care unit Wednesday night, said hospital spokeswoman Maggie O'Brien.
The other two -- a 34-year-old man who was shot in the arm, and a 55-year-old man who fell and struck a clothing rack as he was trying to escape -- were treated and released, she said.
Maruca Kovac told CNN that Hawkins left home 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, she said.
"I said, 'Come home and we'll talk about it,' " she said. "He said, 'It's too late.' He said he'd left a note explaining everything."
Witness Jennifer Kramer told CNN she heard at least 25 shots.
Video Watch witnesses describe the ordeal »
"He just kept firing," she said. She said she called 911 on her cell phone, whispering into it out of fear of being heard. A dispatcher told her other calls had been received and help was on the way, but she said it seemed to take "a long time" for them to arrive.
"It was just so loud, and then it was silence," she said. "I was scared to death he'd be walking around looking for someone else."
She said as she was being escorted out by police, she saw a man lying injured by the escalator where she had been previously.
"All of us were slightly confused because we didn't know what it was," said mall employee Charissa Tatoon about the first burst of gunfire.
"Immediately after that, there was a series of maybe 20 to 25 more shots up on the third floor.
"I was in the women's shoe department and there was a gentleman coming down the escalator that was very near the shoe department, and he was heard saying that he was calling 911, and immediately after that, the shooter shot down from the third floor and shot him on the second floor."
Warren, the police chief, said the victims included five females and three males, not including Hawkins. "We believe there was one shooter, and one shooter only," he said.
Maruca Kovac said she was unaware Hawkins had any guns, although she said he knew a lot about them, as did his stepfather. "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.
She said late Wednesday that authorities were searching her house for evidence.
"My kids are devastated," she said. "We're all in shock."
Hawkins' former school district released a photo of a youth with glasses and long black hair. A spokeswoman said he attended Papillon-La Vista High School until he withdrew in March 2006.
Witnesses described chaos and frantic shoppers running away from the Von Maur store, where the shooting began just before 2 p.m.
"You're in such shock, it's hard to think. I was hoping God would spare us," said a woman who was clutching a rosary in her trembling hand after the shootings. "We had to put up our hands and follow the police to the outside."
* Witnesses describe terrifying moments
* I-Reporter captures scene at mall
* I-Report: Were you at the mall? Share your story
* KETV: Worst mass slaying in Nebraska history
Others described scenes of horror as they fled the mall. See a map of where the shooting took place »
Some shoppers and mall employees hid in clothes racks, dressing rooms and bathrooms after hearing the shots.
Most of the victims were shot inside the Von Maur store, Sgt. Teresa Negron said.
Video Watch police talk about the shooting »
President Bush had visited Omaha Wednesday before the shooting.
"The president is deeply saddened by the shootings in Omaha, Nebraska, earlier today," White House press secretary Dana Perino said.
"His thoughts and prayers are with the victims and their families this evening. 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 as they deal with this terrible tragedy."
As news of the shooting spread, people gathered outside the mall, checking on loved ones who were inside.
advertisement
The shopping center will be closed until at least Thursday, police said.
The shooting was at least the fourth at a mall or shopping center so far this year, following incidents in Salt Lake City, Utah; Kansas City, Missouri; and Douglasville, Georgia. |
_________________
The Medium is the Massage - Marshall McLuhan.
Last edited by Mark Gobell on Thu Dec 06, 2007 8:58 am; edited 1 time in total |
|
| Back to top |
|
|
Mark Gobell
On Gardening Leave
Joined: 24 Jul 2006
Posts: 4529
|
| Posted: Thu Dec 06, 2007 8:57 am Post subject: |
|
|
Charles Starkweather
| Quote: | | Charles Raymond Starkweather (November 24, 1938 – June 25, 1959) was a spree killer who murdered 11 victims in Nebraska and Wyoming during a road trip with his underage girlfriend Caril Ann Fugate. He became a national fascination in the USA, eventually inspiring the films The Sadist, Badlands, Natural Born Killers, Starkweather, Murder in the Heartland and the Bruce Springsteen song "Nebraska". |
_________________
The Medium is the Massage - Marshall McLuhan.
Last edited by Mark Gobell on Thu Jul 08, 2010 8:47 am; edited 1 time in total |
|
| Back to top |
|
|
Mark Gobell
On Gardening Leave
Joined: 24 Jul 2006
Posts: 4529
|
| Posted: Thu Dec 06, 2007 9:03 am Post subject: |
|
|
New York Post
| Quote: | Man Opens Fire at Omaha Mall, Killing 8
By OSKAR GARCIA
Associated Press Writer
AP Photo
AP Photo/Dave Weaver
Watch Related Video
Nine Dead in Omaha Mall Shooting
Holiday Shoppers Killed in Mall Shooting
PHOTO GALLERY
AP Photo
Omaha Mall Shooting
OMAHA, Neb. (AP) -- A man opened fire with a rifle at a busy department store Wednesday, killing eight people in an attack that made holiday shoppers run screaming through a mall and barricade themselves in dressing rooms.
The young shooter, who left a note predicting, "Now I'll be famous," wounded five others, two critically, then took his own life.
Witnesses said the gunman sprayed fired down on shoppers from a third-floor balcony of the Von Maur store using what police said was an SKS assault rifle they found at the scene.
"My knees rocked. I didn't know what to do, so I just ran with everybody else," said Kevin Kleine, 29, who was shopping with her 4-year-old daughter at the Westroads Mall, in a prosperous neighborhood on the city's west side. She said she hid in a dressing room with four other shoppers and an employee.
Police found the first victim on the second floor, then several more near a customer service station on the third floor.
The shooter, identified by police as 19-year-old Robert A. Hawkins, was found dead on the third floor with a self-inflicted gunshot wound.
Omaha Police Chief Thomas Warren said the shooting appeared to be random. He would not release the victims' identities and gave no motive for the attack.
Hawkins was kicked out by his family about a year ago and moved in with a friend's family in a house in a middle-class neighborhood in Bellevue, a suburb wedged between Offutt Air Force Base and the Missouri River, said Debora Maruca-Kovac, who along with her husband took in Hawkins, a friend of her sons.
"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.
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 about 1 p.m. on Wednesday, telling her that he had left a note for her in his bedroom. She tried to get him to explain.
"He said, 'It's too late,'" and hung up, she told CNN.
She told the AP she called Hawkins' mother, went to the Maruca-Kovacs' house and retrieved the suicide note, in which Hawkins wrote that he was "sorry for everything," would not be a burden on his family anymore and, most ominously, "Now I'll be famous."
Maruca-Kovac said she took the note to authorities and went to her job as a nurse at the Nebraska Medical Center.
Hours later, Maruca-Kovac said, she saw victims being brought in.
Police received a 911 call from someone inside the mall, and shots could be heard in the background, Sgt. Teresa Negron said. By the time officers arrived six minutes later, the shooting was over, she said.
"We sent every available officer in the city of Omaha," Negron said.
The Omaha World-Herald reported that the gunman had a military-style haircut and a black backpack, and wore a camouflage vest.
"Everybody was scared, and we didn't know what was going on," said Belene Esaw-Kagbara, 31, a Von Maur employee. "We didn't know what to do. I was praying that God protect us."
Mickey Vickory, who worked at Von Maur's third-floor service department, said she heard shots at about 1:50 p.m.
She and her co-workers and customers went into a back closet behind the wrapping room to hide, then emerged about a half-hour later when police shouted to come out with their hands up. As police took 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."
Shortly after the shooting, which came three weeks before Christmas, a group of shoppers came out of the building with their hands raised. Some were still holding shopping bags.
Police told people to park their cars at businesses across from the mall and to wait for their loved ones, then directed them to an Omaha hotel to await information.
Nebraska Medical Center spokeswoman Andrea McMaster said it had three victims from the mall shooting, including a 61-year-old man in critical condition with a bullet wound to his chest.
Three victims were brought Creighton University Medical Center; two died and the other was critically wounded, spokeswoman Lisa Stites said.
By Wednesday evening, police were using a bomb robot to access a Jeep Cherokee left in the mall parking lot. Authorities believe the vehicle belonged to Hawkins. Officers had seen some wires under some clothing, but no bomb was found.
Authorities were searching both women's homes late Wednesday.
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 Von Maur store is part of a 22-store Midwestern chain. 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.
---
Associated Press writers Josh Funk, Timberly Ross and Eric Olson in Omaha and Lara Jakes Jordan in Washington contributed to this report.
© 2007 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed. Learn more about our Privacy Policy. |
_________________
The Medium is the Massage - Marshall McLuhan. |
|
| Back to top |
|
|
Mark Gobell
On Gardening Leave
Joined: 24 Jul 2006
Posts: 4529
|
| Posted: Thu Dec 06, 2007 9:22 am Post subject: |
|
|
Police statement audios linked from the Omaha World Herald.
| Chief Thomas Warren wrote: | | The suspect has been positively identified as Robert Hawkins, white male, 19 years of age, we have a date of birth of May 18th 1987 |
Making Robert Hawkins, 20 years, 6 months & 17 days old.
Not 19.
Script or just nonsense maths?
_________________
The Medium is the Massage - Marshall McLuhan. |
|
| Back to top |
|
|
Mark Gobell
On Gardening Leave
Joined: 24 Jul 2006
Posts: 4529
|
| Posted: Thu Dec 06, 2007 9:33 am Post subject: |
|
|
The National Terror Alert Response Center
America's Trusted Source For Homeland Security News & Information
| Quote: | Omaha - Grenade Found At Westroads Mall Parking Lot
December 1, 2007
A grenade was found Friday night at an Omaha shopping mall.
Officers went to the northwest corner of the parking lot at Westroads Mall after someone reported finding an explosive device. The mall security directed officers to the area of the parking lot where the device was located. The Omaha Police Bomb Squad Unit was called and removed the intact grenade safely from the area.
A source stated the grenade was lying on the ground with no note or information, but that it did have a pin in it. The source said it looked like a pineapple grenade.
No further information was available. |
_________________
The Medium is the Massage - Marshall McLuhan. |
|
| Back to top |
|
|
Mark Gobell
On Gardening Leave
Joined: 24 Jul 2006
Posts: 4529
|
| Posted: Thu Dec 06, 2007 11:18 am Post subject: |
|
|
From WSBTV
| Quote: | Man Kills Self, 8 Others, In Neb. Mall
Some Say Gunman Troubled, Others Say Funny
POSTED: 3:21 pm EST December 5, 2007
UPDATED: 3:41 am EST December 6, 2007
OMAHA, Neb. -- A gunman who some described as troubled and others say was funny opened fire in a busy mall near Omaha Wednesday, killing eight people before turning the weapon on himself.
Live Coverage
Five others were said to be wounded, two critically.
The shooter at Westroads Mall was identified by the Sarpy County Sheriff's Office as Robert Hawkins, 20, of Bellevue, Neb., TV station KETV reported.
ABC News has confirmed with two sources that the gun used at Westroads Mall was AK 47/SKS-style assault rifle with two magazines taped together found at the scene. ABC reported that taping magazines together is a technique that allows the shooter to reload more quickly.
Hawkins had been arrested on at least two misdemeanors in November and was due in court this month.
Sarpy deputies said they were getting a warrant to search Hawkins' home.
Shortly after the shooting, Hawkins' mother walked into its office with a note that "could be interpreted as suicidal," the sheriff's office said.
KETV reported that the note left with the Sarpy sheriff's office said Hawkins wanted to "go out in style."
It also reportedly said Hawkins was "going to go out and be famous."
Yost said Sarpy County is working with Omaha police.
A friend of Hawkins told KETV that Hawkins had been on antidepressants, staying with friends and bouncing from job to job.
Staying With Friend
KETV reported that it had talked with a woman named Deborah, at whose home Hawkins was staying. He was apparently friends with Deborah's sons, and she offered her home to give him stability.
She was quoted as calling Hawkins, who she called Robbie, a troubled kid who had recently been fired from a job at McDonald's.
Deborah said that she believed Hawkins stole the gun from his stepfather.
Deborah said Hawkins was coming out of his room Wednesday morning when she last saw him.
"He said he'd gotten fired and was pretty upset and said, 'This is the only way,' and we tried to talk to him," Deborah said. "He was just a very troubled -- I had no idea that he was this troubled."
Deborah said she saw Hawkins with a gun Tuesday night and thought he and her sons were going hunting, which they did quite often.
'Anything But A Terrorist'
Another friend, Andrew Bigler, said that Hawkins was "an awesome kid" and that he loved him like a brother.
"Robbie was anything but a terrorist," he said, and said he didn't think Hawkins was filled with anger, just that he was an average teenager with average problems.
Other friends told KETV that Hawkins was a funny person who liked to make others laugh.
Victim 'Exceedingly Lucky'
One shooting victim -- a lawyer who was hit in the arm and finger -- said he feels "exceedingly lucky" to have lived through the terrifying scene.
Jeff Schaffart was shopping for a dress for his daughter to see Santa on Wednesday night. The child, 2, was not with him, but his wife was. He said he was shot from behind. Just before he realized he was hit, Schaffart said, he heard something.
"I heard gunshots. I initially thought they were some kind of balloons popping or construction. Then I heard people starting to panic, and they said, 'Get down. Get down,'" Schaffart said.
He said he went through a women's restroom as his wife hid nearby. Schaffart said he realized he'd been shot when he saw blood on his arm.
"There was a woman there with her baby and we basically stayed there for, I believe, a couple minutes. It sounded like the shots had subsided. I went to find my wife. She wouldn't come out the area she was hiding in," Schaffart said.
Timeline
The shooting happened at about 2 p.m., with the first call coming to police at 1:42 p.m., KETV reported.
Shoppers described a scene of chaos and panic when the shooting started, with people sprinting through stores and corridors, and some hiding in closets.
Jennifer Kramer, a witness, told KETV that she heard 35 to 40 shots as she was taking cover inside the mall. Kramer's mother, who was with her, said she "just kept hoping God would spare us."
Keith Fidler, a Von Maur store employee, told The Associated Press he heard a burst of five to six shots followed by 15 to 20 more shots. 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.
KETV reported that the shooting started near the customer service area on the third level of the store. The Associated Press reported that witnesses said the shooter opened fire with a rifle, firing down from a third-floor balcony.
One witness told KETV that she saw bodies and blood in a store. Another said she saw a tall gunman in the children's department of a department store. She said he was a tall man, holding his arm up in the air and firing.
First responders could be seen escorting people from the building. Its surrounding parking lots were filled with emergency vehicles, evacuated shoppers and onlookers.
The eight victims have not been identified. Five other people were injured in the shooting and two are listed in critical condition at an area hospital, police Sgt. Teresa Negron said.
She said it appeared the gunman took his own life.
Mall Info
The Westwood Mall, in Douglas County, has more than 135 stores and restaurants, according to the Web site for General Growth Properties, the manager of the mall. It gets 14.5 million visitors every year, according to the Web site.
Police said the mall has been evacuated and will be closed Thursday.
Bush In Omaha Earlier
President George W. Bush, who left Omaha just an hour before the shooting started, sent a message to Omahans on Wednesday night.
"The president is deeply saddened by the shootings in Omaha, Neb., earlier today," a statement said. "His thoughts and prayers are with the victims and their families this evening. 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 as they deal with this terrible tragedy."
Previous Story:
* December 5, 2007: 9 Confirmed Dead In Omaha Mall Massacre
|
_________________
The Medium is the Massage - Marshall McLuhan. |
|
| Back to top |
|
|
Mark Gobell
On Gardening Leave
Joined: 24 Jul 2006
Posts: 4529
|
| Posted: Thu Dec 06, 2007 11:32 am Post subject: |
|
|
Charles Starkweather
| Quote: | From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Charles Starkweather
Born: November 24, 1938
Location: Lincoln, Nebraska
Died: June 25, 1959 (aged 20)
Cause of death: Electric chair
Number of victims: 11
Country where killings occurred: U.S. Flag of the United States
States where killings occurred: Nebraska and Wyoming
Span of killings: December 1, 1957 through January 29, 1958
Penalty: Death
Charles Raymond Starkweather (November 24, 1938 – June 25, 1959) was a spree killer who murdered 11 victims in Nebraska and Wyoming during a road trip with his underage girlfriend Caril Ann Fugate. He became a national fascination in the USA, eventually inspiring the films The Sadist, Badlands, Natural Born Killers, Starkweather, Murder in the Heartland and the Bruce Springsteen song "Nebraska". |
From Chief Thomas Warren's statement:
Robert A Hawkins date of birth 18.5.1987
Alleged to have killed 9 victims
_________________
The Medium is the Massage - Marshall McLuhan.
Last edited by Mark Gobell on Thu Jul 08, 2010 8:47 am; edited 2 times in total |
|
| Back to top |
|
|
Mark Gobell
On Gardening Leave
Joined: 24 Jul 2006
Posts: 4529
|
| Posted: Thu Dec 06, 2007 11:47 am Post subject: |
|
|
deleted
_________________
The Medium is the Massage - Marshall McLuhan.
Last edited by Mark Gobell on Thu Jul 08, 2010 8:48 am; edited 1 time in total |
|
| Back to top |
|
|
Mark Gobell
On Gardening Leave
Joined: 24 Jul 2006
Posts: 4529
|
| Posted: Thu Dec 06, 2007 12:34 pm Post subject: |
|
|
| Quote: | Gunman kills 8 in Nebraska, then turns gun on himself
Last Updated: Thursday, December 6, 2007 | 12:01 AM ET
CBC News
Police have confirmed nine people are dead after a young man opened fire in a busy mall in Omaha, Neb., on Wednesday.
A victim is wheeled out of the Westroads Mall after a gunman opened fire at a store in Omaha, Neb., Wednesday, killing eight people and himself.A victim is wheeled out of the Westroads Mall after a gunman opened fire at a store in Omaha, Neb., Wednesday, killing eight people and himself.
(Nati Harnik/Associated Press)
The shooter, brandishing a rifle, died of a self-inflicted gunshot wound after killing eight people in the busy shopping centre, Omaha police said. Witnesses said he was firing at his victims below from a third-floor balcony.
Police identified the gunman as Robert A. Hawkins, 19, of Bellevue, Neb. Authorities recovered an SKS assault rifle from the scene.
Hawkins was later found dead on the third floor of the Van Maur department store, according to the Associated Press.
Five other people were injured and two of the victims are in critical condition after the apparently random shooting, Omaha police Chief Thomas Warren said. Identities of the victims have not been released.
Continue Article
'We saw the bodies and we saw the blood.' — Mickey Vickory, Van Maur store employee
A law enforcement official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, told Omaha television station KETV that a family friend found a suicide note at the home where Hawkins was staying. The note referenced the young man's wish to "go out in style," KETV reported.
Omaha police Sgt. Teresa Negron told reporters the shootings had ended by the time officers responded six minutes later to a 911 call from the Westroads Mall, located in an affluent neighbourhood on the city's west side.
Soon afterward, people emerged from the mall with their hands raised in the air, some still clutching shopping bags.
Screams broke out and shoppers and employees ran for their lives when the shooting began. Some people reportedly barricaded themselves in dressing rooms and prayed.
'Like a nail gun'
"Everybody was scared, and we didn't know what was going on," said Belene Esaw-Kagbara, 31, a Von Maur employee. "We didn't know what to do. I was praying that God protect us."
Keith Fidler, who also works at the Van Maur store, said he and roughly a dozen co-workers hunkered down in the corner of the men's clothing department. Fidler said he heard a burst of five to six shots, followed by 15 to 20 rounds.
The employees did not leave their location until police entered and ordered them to clear the area, Fidler said. As they were led out, employees saw the bodies of the victims for the first time.
"We saw the bodies and we saw the blood," said Mickey Vickory, a Van Maur employee who hid in a closet during the rampage.
"My knees rocked. I didn't know what to do, so I just ran with everybody else," said shopper Kevin Kleine, 29.
'Sorry for everything'
A witness, Shawn Vidlak, said he first heard rapid shots that sounded "like a nail gun," and believed it might be construction noise. As soon as he heard people screaming about gunshots, he ran with his wife and children, he said.
The Omaha World-Herald newspaper reported that the gunman was clad in a camouflage vest, wearing a black backpack and had a military-style haircut.
Hawkins was kicked out by his family about a year ago, said Debora Maruca-Kovac, who allowed the young man to stay at her middle-class family home with her husband and children in the suburb of Bellevue. Hawkins was a friend of her sons, she said.
Maruca-Kovac descibed him as "introverted" and "troubled" when he first began staying with the family. She said Hawkins was fired this week from his job at McDonald's and recently broke up with his girlfriend.
Shortly before the shooting began at around 1:15 p.m., Maruca-Kovac said Hawkins phoned her to alert her to a suicide note he left, in which he wrote he was "sorry for everything" and wished not to be a burden on his family anymore. |
http://www.cbc.ca/world/story/2007/12/05/omha-shooting.html
_________________
The Medium is the Massage - Marshall McLuhan. |
|
| Back to top |
|
|
Mark Gobell
On Gardening Leave
Joined: 24 Jul 2006
Posts: 4529
|
| Posted: Thu Dec 06, 2007 1:25 pm Post subject: |
|
|
From this report posted earlier:
Troubled Teen Wanted to Die with Notoriety
| Omaha World Herald wrote: | | Hawkins, 5-foot-7 and 128 pounds, |
From this CNN video titled, "Gunman turns people into prey", an unnamed eye witness said:
| Eye witness wrote: | | I went around and then I looked back and then I saw the guy in the children's department, big tall guy, real tall, and he just stood there with his arm like this and his hand straight up in the air and shooting (video ends) |
From this extended BBC video of the same eye witness segment:
| Eye witness wrote: | I went around and then I looked back and then I saw the guy in the children's department, big tall guy, real tall, and he just stood there with his arm like this and his hand straight up in the air and shooting and then I turned and ran . . .
he was just so tall, real tall, dark brown hair, but he was real tall, that's what, that's what just surprised me. |
_________________
The Medium is the Massage - Marshall McLuhan. |
|
| Back to top |
|
|
Mark Gobell
On Gardening Leave
Joined: 24 Jul 2006
Posts: 4529
|
| Posted: Thu Dec 06, 2007 2:46 pm Post subject: |
|
|
From this CNN video titled, "Details released on shooting", where Police Chief Thomas Warren briefs the press:
Q&A session at end of Chief Thomas Warren statement:
| Quote: | Reporter: It was said earlier that you think the shooter was acting alone, is there a, was that additional suspect, was he a shooter as well?
Chief Warren: We have not been able to establish the fact that there was any additional parties involved in this incident. We believe there was one shooter and one shooter only, we have recovered a suspect vehicle.
When officers began arriving we did receive some conflicting information regarding suspect identification, suspect description.
There may have been other individuals detained, however we have determined that there was only one individual involved in this incident. |
_________________
The Medium is the Massage - Marshall McLuhan.
Last edited by Mark Gobell on Fri Dec 07, 2007 8:44 am; edited 1 time in total |
|
| Back to top |
|
|
Mark Gobell
On Gardening Leave
Joined: 24 Jul 2006
Posts: 4529
|
| Posted: Thu Dec 06, 2007 3:09 pm Post subject: |
|
|
Fox News
| Quote: | OMAHA, Neb. — A man with a rifle opened fire at a busy Omaha shopping mall Wednesday, killing eight people before taking his own life, police said. Five others were wounded, two critically.
The killer has been identified as Robert A. Hawkins, age 19 or 20, who left a suicide note stating, "I'm going out in style" and "I'm going to be famous." The man's vehicle was reportedly found in the parking lot.
Hawkins' mother brought the note to the local sheriff's office. She was being questioned by investigators Wednesday night.
Sgt. Teresa Negron said the gunman killed eight people, then apparently killed himself. Authorities gave no motive for the attack and did not know whether he said anything during the rampage.
Friends described Hawkins as "depressed" and said he had quit school several years ago and worked at a series of fast food jobs. He was arrested last month on misdemeanor charges and was expected to appear in court this month.
Officials said Hawkins, clad in military-style clothing, entered the mall just before 2 p.m. Wednesday and began firing off rounds. The rampage sent shoppers and employees running and screaming through the Westroads Mall, barricading themselves in dressing rooms after hearing gunfire. Hawkins was found dead on the third floor of the Von Maur store with a self-inflicted gunshot wound, and his victims were discovered on the second and third floors, police said.
Omaha Gunman Had Recent Troubles, History of Depression, Friend Says
Gunman Opens Fire at Omaha Mall
Witnesses said Hawkins fired down on shoppers from a third-floor balcony of the Von Maur store.
"Everybody was scared, and we didn't know what was going on," said Belene Esaw-Kagbara, 31, a Von Maur employee. "We didn't know what to do. I was praying that God protect us."
Mickey Vickory, who worked at Von Maur's third-floor service department, said she heard shots at about 1:50 p.m.
She and her co-workers and customers went into a back closet behind the wrapping room to hide, then emerged about a half-hour later when police shouted to come out with their hands up. As police took them to another part of the mall for safety, they saw the victims.
"We saw the bodies and we saw the blood," she said.
Police received a 911 call from someone inside the mall, and shots could be heard in the background, Negron said. By the time officers arrived six minutes later, the shooting was over, she said.
Shortly after the shooting, which came three weeks before Christmas, a group of shoppers came out of the building with their hands raised. Some were still holding shopping bags.
It was not clear Wednesday night when Hawkins took his own life.
Click here for photos
Click here to watch live video at the scene at KETV.com
Another man was taken into custody outside of the mall, but his role in the shooting was not clear.
Two gunshot victims who were treated at Creighton Medical Center died from their wounds, FOX News confirmed, and a third victim being treated there remained in critical condition.
No additional information was available on the other fatalities.
Andrea McMaster, a spokeswoman for the University of Nebraska Medical Center, told FOX News that three shooting victims were being treated there: a 61-year-old man shot in the chest, a 34-year-old man shot in the arm, and a 55-year-old man with a cut to his face. The 61-year-old man was in critical condition and undergoing surgery.
Police had put the Westroads Mall, Omaha's largest shopping mall, on lockdown while it searched for the gunman.
One of the victims was reportedly an elderly man found near an escalator inside Von Maur department store, one of the mall's anchor tenents.
Witnesses described hearing "dozens and dozens" of shots being fired, with one witness saying she heard more than 30 shots.
Shawn Vidlak said he heard four or five rapid shots "like a nail gun." At first he thought it was noise from construction work going on 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."
A woman who answered the phone at an Old Navy store said 20 to 30 customers were huddled with employees in a back storeroom.
"All we know was people were running and screaming down the hallway by Von Maur saying there was a shooting, and then they locked us down," said the woman, who said her name was Heidi.
Keith Fidler, an employee at Von Maur, said he heard the burst of gunfire, followed by dozens of shots. 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.
Fidler said he did not see the shooting, but saw a person lying by the elevator as he was leaving the store.
Todd Trimpe told FOX News that he saw police apprehend a man, dressed in camouflage, who was hiding under a bus-stop bench outside the mall. Trimpe said the man "stood out like a sore thumb." He did not know what was happening inside the mall when he witnessed the arrest.
The sprawling, three-level mall has more than 135 stores and restaurants, according to the Web site for General Growth Properties, the manager of the mall. It gets 14.5 million visitors every year, according to the Web site.
On Friday night, authorities removed a live grenade from the parking lot of the same mall.
President Bush was in town Wednesday for a fundraiser in Omaha, but left about an hour before the shooting.
Wednesday's shooting 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.
This is a developing story. Refresh this page for updates.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
|
_________________
The Medium is the Massage - Marshall McLuhan. |
|
| Back to top |
|
|
Mark Gobell
On Gardening Leave
Joined: 24 Jul 2006
Posts: 4529
|
| Posted: Thu Dec 06, 2007 3:13 pm Post subject: |
|
|
| Quote: | Mall Massacre: At Least Nine Dead
Posted: 4:00 PM Dec 5, 2007
Last Updated: 6:30 PM Dec 5, 2007
Police say at least nine people were shot to death and at least five others were injured in a shooting at Westroads Mall this afternoon. The shooter apparently shot himself to death.
Creighton University Medical Center confirms two fatalities there; one man and one woman. Another person is in critical condition.
Three victims were taken to the Nebraska Medical Center, one in critical condition with a chest wound. One person has an arm wound and the third was being treated for cuts to the face.
There was an earlier report that someone was found dead from a self-inflicted gunshot at the customer service office of Von Maur. It was not initially clear if that was one of the two fatalities confirmed by Creighton University Medical Center.
The mall was locked down as the initial shooting report came out but several people got out of the building shortly after the gunfire and many others followed later.
Law enforcement officers converged on the scene. The police helicopter circled overhead. Members of the Emergency Response Unit were on the scene with guns drawn.
One witness told us she heard approximately 12 gunshots. Other witnesses told us they heard at least that many shots fired.
"Connie", a Westroads shopper we spoke with on the phone, tells us she heard the shots on the third floor of the mall. She said she hid and waited until the gunfire stopped and then crawled out of the building.
Two people were taken into custody near a bus stop but it was not clear if those men were connected to the shootings.
A witness tells us that the shooter pointed a gun over a third-floor railing in the mall and opened fire. That witness says one person was shot in the head.
Two busloads on witness were gathered together as authorities tried to figure out what happened.
Eric, the father of a woman who is a security guard at the mall, got word around 3 p.m. that his daughter was not injured in the incident. She has been on the job for about a year and told her parents she saw one of the victims get shot.
"She called my wife. She was pretty upset," Eric told us.
Witness Chuck Wright says, "I heard this bang, bang, bang. And immediately I just froze."
He says, "As I backed off, I heard bang, bang, again."
Wright says he heard a total of 12 to 15 shots fired.
"It was just panic. Nobody knew what was going on," Wright said.
Wright told us the shootings appeared to be random.
Investigators with canines turned their attention to a maroon van in the parking lot as the situation inside the mall stabilized but it was not clear what caught the attention of the dogs. |
http://www.wtap.com/home/headlines/12166086.html
_________________
The Medium is the Massage - Marshall McLuhan. |
|
| Back to top |
|
|
Mark Gobell
On Gardening Leave
Joined: 24 Jul 2006
Posts: 4529
|
| Posted: Thu Dec 06, 2007 3:16 pm Post subject: |
|
|
Daily Mirror
| Quote: | Gun nut kills eight after Bush speech
Shoppers flee mall in terror
Anton Antonowicz US Correspondent 06/12/2007
A crazed gunman shot eight people dead before killing himself in a crowded shopping mall last night - an hour after President Bush gave a speech nearby.
Five others were wounded in the rampage, two critically.
The killer shot one man in the head from a third-floor balcony of the Westroads Mall in Omaha, Nebraska, while others were hit at point-blank range.
He was reported to be a Robert Hawkins, 19, whose mum found a suicide note at home which read: "I'm going out in style."
The carnage came an hour after Mr Bush left the city. Witness Shawn Vidlak said: "I grabbed my wife and kids and got out of there as fast as possible."
Others reported hearing up to 40 shots. Jeffrey Peck, manager of a leather goods store, said mall workers ran to tell him to close up his shop. He added: "I told customers to go into the backroom, and as I was shutting the gate, I heard two shots ring out."
Terrified shoppers and workers were trapped inside the mall as SWAT teams tried to reach the killer who was later found dead in the Von Maur department store.
Though police suspected the gunman was acting alone, a second man wearing camouflage was arrested. Last week a grenade was found hidden behind a plant stand at the same mall. |
_________________
The Medium is the Massage - Marshall McLuhan. |
|
| Back to top |
|
|
Mark Gobell
On Gardening Leave
Joined: 24 Jul 2006
Posts: 4529
|
| Posted: Thu Dec 06, 2007 3:22 pm Post subject: |
|
|
MSNBC
| Quote: | Photo Shows Man In Handcuffs; Witness Reports 35-40 Shots
TheOmahaChannel.com
updated 3:59 p.m. ET Dec. 5, 2007
OMAHA, Neb. - A viewer photo shows a man in handcuffs after shots were fired inside the Von Maur store at Westroads Mall on Wednesday afternoon.
Earlier, police said a young black man was being sought as the suspected shooter. A description of the shooter, broadcast over scanners, was that he was in an Army-green vest and was holding a rifle. The viewer's photo showed a young black man in fatigues surrounded by police and apparently in handcuffs. Police have not yet confirmed an arrest. It was reported by KETV crews that the man in fatigues was found under a bus bench.
KETV NewsWatch 7's Carol Kloss said she could see a man in cuffs and a black, hooded sweatshirt surrounded by police.
Witness reports vary widely. Jennifer Kramer, a witness, said she heard 35 to 40 shots as she was taking cover inside the mall. A Westroads kiosk worker, Kathy, told KETV NewsWatch 7 that she heard three pops. She said a Bath and Body Works manager approached her and told her to get out of the mall hallway as there was a situation, and a shooter had not been located.
Another witness said he heard four or five shots in rapid succession. Shawn Vidlak said he was told while he was inside the mall that as many as five people had been injured.
An elderly man was found near an escalator in the store. Early indications were that as many as five people may be injured. At 2:30 p.m., four stretchers were seen with victims on them being taken out of the store. Two more stretchers were in place at the doors.
Colby Barak told KETV NewsWatch 7 that she was on lockdown inside Westroads Mall. She said she was doing Christmas shopping at Younkers, and an announcement was made that no one would be allowed to leave.
Just before 2 p.m., Barrett said, another announcement was made that shoppers could leave but would not be allowed back in. Barrett said she believes she saw a deceased man inside the mall.
A group of paramedics made their way into Von Maur at about 2:25 p.m.
Doug, a shopper at the mall, said police are restricting the movements of people inside the mall.
Outside the mall, shoppers were seen leaving with their hands over their heads.
Inside a first-floor dressing room at Von Maur, Julie used her cell phone to call KETV NewsWatch 7 and report that she was with a group of girls and they were scared. Julie said she heard noise getting closer, but she didn't know what had happened. She said she went out of the dressing room and saw other people in the store running and laying down, so she went back into the dressing room. |
| Description: |
| Photograph from MSNBC article |
|
| Filesize: |
10.54 KB |
| Viewed: |
31509 Time(s) |
|
_________________
The Medium is the Massage - Marshall McLuhan. |
|
| Back to top |
|
|
alfsevic
Minor Poster
Joined: 05 Jan 2007
Posts: 82
|
| Posted: Thu Dec 06, 2007 6:21 pm Post subject: |
|
|
The Sorcha Faal version
US Secret Service 'Omaha' Gun Battle Leaves 9 Dead
By: Sorcha Faal, and as reported to her Western Subscribers
FSB reports circulating in the Kremlin this morning are detailing a shocking gun battle that took place in the United States between American Secret Service Agents and an 'unknown' number of what are believed to be 3 'highly trained, military type' sniper units in a suburban mall in Omaha, Nebraska.
According to these reports, President Bush, and who was summoned by America's Top Military Leaders to the US Strategic Command Headquarters, located at Offutt Air Force Base, was using as a 'cover story' for his unannounced visit to Omaha a fund raising campaign for his former agriculture secretary, Mike Johanns, who is now a US Senate candidate in Nebraska.
President Bush, as these reports further state, was, prior to his leaving Omaha, to provide to the US propaganda media outlets what is called a 'photo-op' showing him Christmas shopping at a mid priced to luxury goods store named Von Maur and which was located in the Westroads Mall.
As with FSB forces protecting President Putin, the American President is, likewise, protected by an elite security force called the Secret Service, and who, these reports continue, do prior security screening of all locations to be visited by those US government officials they are assigned to protect.
Upon the US Secret Service units entering into the Westroads Mall, and prior to the American President's intended photo-op, FSB reports detail a 'chaotic' series of radio transmissions that, seemingly, detail a 'furious' gun battle between what can only be described as US Forces firing on US Forces, and which, according to Western media information, has left 9 people dead.
US propaganda media sources, however, are reporting this event as a random shooting by a 'lone gunman', though their complete story is still not complete and, as always, is subject to change.
Most curious, though, of the Western media reporting on this event is the saturation coverage describing in detail that this supposed 'lone gunman', and prior to shooting his victims, first targeted a child's toy called a Teddy Bear, and as we can read:
"Witnesses said the gunman fired down on shoppers from a third-floor balcony of the Von Maur store. One witness told a TV station that he shot up a teddy bear as he sprayed fire on shoppers."
This is important to note due to the, seemingly, odd coincidence that the word 'Teddy Bear' was an early Cold War term used by the United States Strategic Air Command B-52 pilots to designate the United States being on their highest alert status, DEFCON 1, and which meant:
"This refers to maximum readiness. It is not certain whether this has ever been used, but it is reserved for imminent or ongoing attack on US military forces or US territory by a foreign military power."
http://www.whatdoesitmean.com/index1053.htm
http://www.iraq-war.ru/article/149837
http://tinyurl.com/2sgowf
|
|
| Back to top |
|
|
Mark Gobell
On Gardening Leave
Joined: 24 Jul 2006
Posts: 4529
|
| Posted: Fri Dec 07, 2007 8:18 am Post subject: |
|
|
| Quote: | Omaha gunman freed from centers, homes
By ANNA JO BRATTON and NATE JENKINS, Associated Press WritersThu Dec 6, 6:59 PM ET
The young man who killed eight people and committed suicide in a shooting rampage at a department store spent four years in a series of treatment centers, group homes and foster care after threatening to kill his stepmother in 2002.
Finally, in August 2006, social workers, the courts and his father all agreed: It was time for Robert Hawkins to be released — nine months before he turned 19 and would have been required to leave anyway.
The group homes and treatment centers were for youths with substance abuse, mental or behavioral problems.
Altogether, the state spent about $265,000 on Hawkins, officials said.
On Thursday, while some of those who knew Hawkins called the massacre Wednesday at a busy Omaha mall unexpected, not everyone was surprised.
"He should have gotten help, but I think he needed someone to help him and needed someone to be there when in the past he's said he wanted to kill himself," said Karissa Fox, who said she knew Hawkins through a friend. "Someone should have listened to him."
Todd Landry, state director of children and family services, said court records do not show precisely why Hawkins was released. But he said if Hawkins should not have been set free, someone would have raised a red flag.
"It is my opinion, it was not a failure of the system to provide appropriate services," Landry said. "If that was an issue, any of the participants in the case would have brought that forward."
After reviewing surveillance tape, a suicide note and Hawkins' last conversations with those close to him, police said they don't know — and may never know — exactly why Hawkins went to the Von Maur store at Westroads Mall and shot more than a dozen people.
But he clearly planned ahead, walking through the store, exiting, then returning a few minutes later with a gun concealed in a balled-up sweatshirt he was carrying, authorities said.
Debora Maruca-Kovac, a woman who with her husband took Hawkins into their home because he had no other place to live, told the Omaha World-Herald that the night before the shooting, Hawkins and her sons showed her a semiautomatic rifle. She said she thought the gun looked too old to work.
Police believe Hawkins was using that AK-47 when he stormed off a third-floor elevator at the store and started shooting.
Police said they have found no connections between the 19-year-old and the six employees and two shoppers he killed.
"The shooting victims were randomly selected," as was the location of the shooting, Omaha Police Chief Thomas Warren said.
Acquaintances said that Hawkins was a drug user and that he had a history of depression. In 2005 and 2006, according to court records, he underwent psychiatric evaluations, the reasons for which Landry would not disclose, citing privacy rules.
In May 2002, he was sent to a treatment center in Waynesville, Mo., after threatening his stepmother. Four months later, a Nebraska court decided Hawkins' problems were serious enough that he should be under state supervision and made him a ward of the state.
He went through a series of institutions in Nebraska as he progressed through the system: months at a treatment center and group home in Omaha in 2003; time in a foster care program and treatment center in 2004 and 2005; then a felony drug-possession charge later in 2005. Landry said the court records do not identify the drug.
The drug charge was eventually dropped, but he was jailed in 2006 for not performing community service as required.
On Aug. 21, 2006, he was released from state custody.
Under state law, Landry said, wards are released when all sides — parents, courts, social workers — agree it is time for them to go. Once Hawkins was set free, he was entirely on his own. He was no longer under state supervision, and was not released into anyone's custody.
Asked whether the state should have watched over Hawkins after he was released, Peterson said: "When our role is ended, we try to step out."
About an hour before the shootings, Hawkins called Maruca-Kovac and told her he had written a suicide note, Maruca-Kovac said. In the note, 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."
"He had said how much he loved his family and all his friends and how he was sorry he was a burden to everybody and his whole life he was a piece of (expletive) and now he'll be famous," Maruca-Kovac said on CBS' "The Early Show," describing the note. "I was fearful that he was going to try to commit suicide, but I had no idea that he would involve so many other families."
The shoppers killed were Gary Scharf, 48, of Lincoln, and John McDonald, 65, of Council Bluffs, Iowa. The employees killed were Angie Schuster, 36; Maggie Webb, 24; Janet Jorgensen, 66; Diane Trent, 53; Gary Joy, 56; and Beverly Flynn, 47, all of Omaha. |
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20071206/ap_on_re_us/mall_shooting&printer= 1
If Chief Warren's statement about Robert Hawkins date of birth is correct, 18 May 1987 then the above statement:
| Quote: | | Finally, in August 2006, social workers, the courts and his father all agreed: It was time for Robert Hawkins to be released — nine months before he turned 19 and would have been required to leave anyway. |
Is not correct. He would have already been 19 in May 2006
Please remember when reading all of these reports that no eye witness has yet described Robert Hawkins as the shooter and those that have described the shooter have not described Hawkins.
_________________
The Medium is the Massage - Marshall McLuhan.
Last edited by Mark Gobell on Fri Dec 07, 2007 8:44 am; edited 1 time in total |
|
| Back to top |
|
|
Mark Gobell
On Gardening Leave
Joined: 24 Jul 2006
Posts: 4529
|
| Posted: Fri Dec 07, 2007 8:25 am Post subject: |
|
|
This story mentions the teddy bear . . .
| Quote: | Man opens fire at Omaha mall, killing 8
By OSKAR GARCIA, Associated Press Writer 29 minutes ago
A man opened fire with a rifle at a busy department store Wednesday, killing eight people before taking his own life in an attack that made holiday shoppers run screaming through a mall and barricade themselves in dressing rooms. Five more people were wounded, two critically.
The gunman left a suicide note that was found at his home by his mother, said a law enforcement official who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak. TV station KETV reported that the note said he wanted to "go out in style."
The official identified the gunman as Robert A. Hawkins, age 20.
Witnesses said the gunman fired down on shoppers from a third-floor balcony of the Von Maur store. One witness told a TV station that he shot up a teddy bear as he sprayed fire on shoppers.
He was found dead on the third floor with a self-inflicted gunshot wound, and his victims were discovered on the second and third floors, police said.
"My knees rocked. I didn't know what to do, so I just ran with everybody else," said Kevin Kleine, 29, who was shopping with her 4-year-old daughter at the Westroads Mall, in a prosperous neighborhood on the city's west side. She said she hid in a dressing room with four other shoppers and an employee.
Sgt. Teresa Negron said the gunman killed eight people, then apparently killed himself. Authorities gave no motive for the attack and said they did not know whether he said anything during the rampage.
Police received a 911 call from someone inside the mall, and shots could be heard in the background, Negron said. By the time officers arrived six minutes later, the shooting was over, she said.
The Omaha World-Herald reported that the gunman had a military-style haircut and a black backpack, and wore a camouflage vest.
"Everybody was scared, and we didn't know what was going on," said Belene Esaw-Kagbara, 31, a Von Maur employee. "We didn't know what to do. I was praying that God protect us."
Mickey Vickory, who worked at Von Maur's third-floor service department, said she heard shots at about 1:50 p.m.
She and her co-workers and customers went into a back closet behind the wrapping room to hide, then emerged about a half-hour later when police shouted to come out with their hands up. As police took 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.
A 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."
Shortly after the shooting, which came three weeks before Christmas, a group of shoppers came out of the building with their hands raised. Some were still holding shopping bags.
Police told people to park their cars at businesses across from the mall and to wait for their loved ones, then directed them to an Omaha hotel to await information.
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 Von Maur store is part of a 22-store Midwestern chain. 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. |
_________________
The Medium is the Massage - Marshall McLuhan. |
|
| Back to top |
|
|
Mark Gobell
On Gardening Leave
Joined: 24 Jul 2006
Posts: 4529
|
| Posted: Fri Dec 07, 2007 9:24 am Post subject: |
|
|
http://www.kmtv.com/Global/story.asp?S=7435249
From the video link on that page titled: "Police Describe Timeline of Attack"
Transcript of video:
Studio Reporters: Security cameras recorded the rampage. It was over in just minutes.
Action 3 News Reporter Joe Jordan is live. Joe:
The details of the siege were described for the first time today by Omaha Police Chief, Thomas Warren. We are told that the suspect in the shooting actually walked into the front door of the Von Maur department store, acted suspiciously enough that he raised the attention of security guards inside the mall but then he quickly left. Only to return 6 minutes later, undetected, except for the cameras.
| Police Chief Warren wrote: | | He re-entered the store, appeared to be concealing something, balled up in a hooded sweatshirt. He took the elevator to the 3rd floor and upon exiting the elevator, immediately started firing shots. We believe there was probably in excess of 30 rounds fired from the SKS. We've confiscated computers and we'll be examining any information that may be out on websites, blogs etc. |
Action 3 News has obtained one blog entry, police are looking at. It says quote:
Cue still of an alleged blog entry:
| Quote: | | "Later today I'm going to bring my rifle to Van Maur Department Store at the Westroads Mall, Omaha, Nebraska to try to beat Cho's high score. I'm going to go out in style." |
The note was time stamped at 12:38, 1 hour and 3 minutes before the shootings started.
And the reference to Cho apparently referring to the student at Virginia Tech who, last April, shot and killed 32 innocent victims, before killing himself.
Reporting live, Joe Jordan. Action 3 News.
_________________
The Medium is the Massage - Marshall McLuhan. |
|
| Back to top |
|
|
Mark Gobell
On Gardening Leave
Joined: 24 Jul 2006
Posts: 4529
|
| Posted: Fri Dec 07, 2007 9:31 am Post subject: |
|
|
| Quote: | HHS: Young mall gunman had troubled past
Associated Press - December 6, 2007 4:55 PM ET
OMAHA, Neb. (AP) - Officials with the state's Health and Human Services agency say the 19-year-old gunman who killed eight people in an Omaha mall and them himself had a troubled past.
State officials say Hawkins became a ward of the state in September 2002 after he was released from a Missouri treatment center. Officials said today that he was sent to the center for making "homicidal threats" to his stepmother. After that, he was sent to at least three treatment centers and released from state custody in mid-2006. That came through the mutual consent of his parents, a judge and social workers.
Officials today defended the decision to release Hawkins from state care.
Attempts to reach Hawkins' biological parents on Thursday by The Associated Press were unsuccessful. |
It is reported that Hawkins, in 2002, was admitted to Piney Ridge Treatment Center, in Waynesville. MO.
_________________
The Medium is the Massage - Marshall McLuhan. |
|
| Back to top |
|
|
Mark Gobell
On Gardening Leave
Joined: 24 Jul 2006
Posts: 4529
|
| Posted: Fri Dec 07, 2007 9:37 am Post subject: |
|
|
| Quote: | Published Friday | December 7, 2007
Six Deadly Minutes: Calls to 911 offer chilling account
BY KAREN SLOAN AND HENRY CORDES
WORLD-HERALD STAFF WRITERS
• Reader submissions
• Statements from government officials about the shooting
• Westroads Mall a landmark in Omaha
• Victim, shot in the arm, describes shooting scene
• World-Herald Video: Reactions at Westroads
• Audio: Omaha Police Department press conferences
• Von Maur employee recounts ordeal
• Memorial brings light to dark day
• Concerned people wait for news about loved ones
• Eyewitness accounts from inside the mall during the shooting
• 'We're just in complete shock,' store president says
• World-Herald Web site swamped after shooting
• Omaha's Deadliest Hour: Gunman arrived at mall store with purpose
• Audio: 911 calls reporting Westroads shootings
• Von Maur officer kept dispatcher up to date
• Shooting at Westroads Mall - Dec. 5, 2007
• Statements from government officials about the shooting
• Westroads Mall a landmark in Omaha
• Victim, shot in the arm, describes shooting scene
• World-Herald Video: Reactions at Westroads
• Audio: Omaha Police Department press conferences
• Von Maur employee recounts ordeal
• Memorial brings light to dark day
• Concerned people wait for news about loved ones
• Eyewitness accounts from inside the mall during the shooting
• 'We're just in complete shock,' store president says
• World-Herald Web site swamped after shooting
• Omaha's Deadliest Hour: Gunman arrived at mall store with purpose
• Audio: 911 calls reporting Westroads shootings
• Von Maur officer kept dispatcher up to date
The first phone call from Westroads Mall came in to 911 dispatchers at 1:42 p.m. No voice was on the line.
Shoppers file out of Von Maur with their hands in the air after the shooting.
Only silence punctuated by gunshots. In the next six minutes, the Douglas County 911 center received 48 more emergency calls. Panicked people inside the mall and family members called 911 as 19-year-old Robert Hawkins shot up the Von Maur department store.
Their frantic voices and desperate pleas for help, and even their silence, provide a chilling account of the chaos that reigned as Hawkins took the lives of eight people before ending his own on a day that will be remembered as one of Omaha's darkest.
Mark Conrey, director of the Douglas County 911 center, described the calls as "extremely disturbing."
On the 911 tapes, the first call at 1:42 p.m. lasts less than a minute, but on it, dispatchers hear about 23 shots in spurts of two, three and four.
What happened: Nine dead, including the gunman, and five injured at Westroads Mall. Victims were taken to Creighton University Medical Center and the Nebraska Medical Center, where two were in critical condition.
• Shooting is worst single case of violence in state history.
• Shooting appears to have been confined to Von Maur. Most of it occurred on the second and third floors.
• Police took call at 1:42 p.m., and first officer arrived on the scene in six minutes. Officer found one shooting victim in the store.
• Omaha police sent "every available officer in the city of Omaha to the mall," according to Sgt. Teresa Negron, an Omaha police spokeswoman.
• Omaha Fire Department transported seven victims to the hospital, two of whom died en route or after arrival.
• Omaha Mayor Mike Fahey and Police Chief Thomas Warren were out of town.
In another call that lasts nearly 30 minutes, a Von Maur employee on the third floor takes refuge in the store's security office.
She says Hawkins "went into customer service and told them to open the vault." Police said, however, that robbery was not a motive.
The employee describes the scene from the security cameras, with victims and the person she thinks must be the shooter on the floor. "I see him lying there by the gun," the Von Maur employee says as she bursts into tears.
"I don't want to look anymore. I'm not looking," she tells a dispatcher who had asked for a description of the scene.
Officers eventually escorted the woman out of the security room.
The 911 tapes were released as a more complete picture of the shootings emerged Thursday, with authorities piecing together what happened with the assistance of video surveillance of Hawkins' movements.
It's clear that Hawkins showed up at the Westroads Mall with a purpose.
Why he chose Von Maur — arguably Omaha's most elegant department store, with wide aisles and a bright, tasteful décor — remains unclear.
"It may be impossible to come up with an explanation," said Omaha Police Chief Thomas Warren.
Warren said Thursday that Hawkins first walked in Von Maur's south entrance without a gun, perhaps casing the store. A store security guard thought he was acting suspiciously and perhaps intended to shoplift.
Hawkins left the store and returned minutes later with a gun concealed in a hooded sweatshirt. It had two ammunition clips holding 30 rounds each. He entered through the south doors, turned right and headed up the elevator.
The elevator popped open on the third floor of the festively decked-out store. Out strode Hawkins with an AK-47-style assault rifle, poised to unleash the worst killing spree in Nebraska since the 1958 rampage of Charles Starkweather.
The cheerful sound of the store's piano was suddenly punctuated by the pop-pop-pop of rapid gunfire — the opening rounds of six minutes of terror.
The black-clad Hawkins started shooting at shoppers and store workers, shot after shot after awful shot.
He circled the spacious atrium that is the store's visual centerpiece, leaned over an escalator railing and, with deadly aim, shot a man in the head.
He shot people on the sales floor.
He shot people around the customer service counter and in the gift-wrapping area behind it.
And in the end, right by that counter, Hawkins shot himself with his own bullet.
By the time those horrific minutes had passed Wednesday afternoon, the troubled 19-year-old had killed eight people, wounded five more and shattered the holiday season for an entire city.
Customer Alan Mason, at a checkout counter near the elevators, was among the first to see Hawkins when the door opened on the third floor. Mason heard a popping sound and thought it was fuses blowing.
"I didn't think it was shots because you don't think it's shots at the mall," he said.
Then he saw the gunman — and realized it was shots at the mall.
The first 911 call came at 1:42 p.m. from a Von Maur employee.
The first officers were dispatched at 1:44. They arrived at 1:48 — six minutes after that initial call.
But it appears that by then the carnage was over. It ended that fast.
The precise sequence of Hawkins' movements was immediately lost in the chaos of fleeing witnesses' glimpses and fleeting accounts. But it appears that he soon headed for the atrium, which offers a commanding view into the floors below.
From there, police say, he shot down on at least one of the victims, killing him.
There were other random shootings on the third floor, with the shooter eventually making his way to the third floor customer service department and the gift-wrapping area behind it.
Before it was over, police believe, Hawkins had fired more than 30 rounds.
Heavily armed officers entering the store found the first victim on the second floor, apparently shot by Hawkins from the floor above.
Six bodies were on the third floor, three near the customer service counter, where a telephone receiver dangled off the hook. One of those bodies apparently was Hawkins. A rifle with a large ammo clip was near that body.
Among the other dead on the third floor was a customer who died sitting in a chair waiting for a gift to be wrapped.
The second-floor victim, a man, was found dead in an aisle about 10 to 20 feet straight in front of an escalator.
Shell casings were scattered through the store. One of the victims appeared to have just pulled out his cell phone when he was shot. It lay near his body.
Officers painstakingly worked through the store, finally making their way back to customer service. At 2:12 p.m., they reported finding the gunman down from a self-inflicted gunshot.
Officers began to evacuate the surviving employees from behind the counter. Their route passed the customer service counter, around a trail of blood.
The Douglas County 911 center was flooded with calls during the shooting, although as of Thursday afternoon, the total number wasn't clear, Conrey said. Seven operators and dispatchers struggled to field the onslaught of calls and had to put some on hold. Some people in the mall reported that they were unable to get through to 911 at all.
"It was a combination of our operators going from call to call to cal, and the cell towers being overloaded," Conrey said. "Every cell phone in the world was going off in that area."
The 911 calls continued for some time because people were hiding in storage rooms, dressing rooms and other places, and didn't know what was going on, Conrey said. Police eventually had to locate those people and escort them away.
Conrey said the situation hasn't been easy to cope with for the dispatchers who took calls during the massacre, but chaplains were on hand Thursday to talk to staff.
"They are doing their best to handle it," he said.
Mall shootings across the country April 2007
Ward Parkway Center, Kansas City, Mo.
A 51-year-old man kills two people in a parking lot and in the Ward Parkway Center in Kansas City, Mo., before dying in a police shootout.
February 2007
Trolley Square, Salt Lake City
An 18-year-old Bosnian immigrant used a handgun and shotgun that left five shoppers dead and four wounded.
December 2006
Boynton Beach Mall, near Miami
A 21-year-old involved in a fight opened fire in a mall crowded with Christmas Eve shoppers, killing one.
November 2006
Westfield Annapolis Mall; Annapolis, Md.
An 18-year-old shot and wounded two people, including a U.S. Secret Service Agent, during a fight.
May 2006
Crossroads Mall, Oklahoma City
A teen gunman wounded another teen in a fight before being killed by an off-duty officer.
November 2005
Tacoma Mall; Tacoma, Wash.
A 20-year-old armed with a semi-automatic rifle walked through the mall shooting randomly, wounding six people, one critically.
February 2005
Hudson Valley Mall; Kingston, N.Y.
A 24-year-old man armed with an AK-47 replica fired randomly until running out of ammunition, wounding two.
World-Herald staff writers Steve Jordon, Christopher Burbach, Todd Cooper, Kevin Cole, Joe Ruff, John Ferak, Judith Nygren and Jennifer Palmer contributed to this report. |
http://www.omaha.com/index.php?u_page=2798&u_sid=10202217
_________________
The Medium is the Massage - Marshall McLuhan. |
|
| Back to top |
|
|
Mark Gobell
On Gardening Leave
Joined: 24 Jul 2006
Posts: 4529
|
| Posted: Fri Dec 07, 2007 10:25 am Post subject: |
|
|
| Quote: | Published Friday | December 7, 2007
Von Maur officer kept dispatcher up to date
Jodi Longmeyer, Von Maur's human resources manager, called 911 at 1:50 p.m. Wednesday. During her exchanges with dispatchers, she described events on the third floor of the department store.
J.L.: We had . . .
Dispatcher: At the Von Maur?
J.L.: Yes.
D: We do have police en route. Do you have any suspect information?
J.L.: He's a white gentleman. Um, I didn't really see him. He had a large gun. We have people injured, we have people who have been shot.
D: We do have police on the way out there, do you know how many people?
J.L.: I would say, as far as I can see, about four or five people.
D: OK, hold on, we are on the way, I'm going to transfer you up to rescue to see if they need that information.
J.L.: OK (names one of the homicide victims), hold on, the ambulance is coming.
* * *
Transfer to new dispatcher:
J.L.: Yes, my name is Jodi. I'm with Von Maur. I have people who were down and people who have been shot.
D: In what part of the store?
J.L.: I am on the third floor, that's where most of the people who have been shot are at.
D: How many people do you have there?
J.L: As far as I can tell, I have two to roughly four that I have seen.
D: The person that did the shooting, where are they at? Do you have any idea?
J.L.: No, I have no idea. As far as I can tell, I remember quickly, he was a white gentleman, about 5-foot-8 inches, had kind of a mustache. Large gun.
D: How old is he?
J.L: I really saw him from a far distance. He was probably around mid-20s.
* * *
D: Do you have any idea what type of gun it was?
J.L.: It was large.
D: Was it like a pistol-type gun?
J.L: It was big. It wasn't a rifle but it looked like an automatic type of a gun.
* * *
D: Do you have the injured parties with you there?
J.L.: I have one in view.
D: OK. I want you to stay down and out of sight, OK?
J.L: OK.
* * *
D: Do you have any other information for me?
J.L: I can't think of anything. I'm sorry, I just — when I heard the gunshot, I got down as soon as possible because I have kids (beginning to cry).
* * *
Break
J.L.: Are they here yet?
D: I'm sure the police are in the building, but you know, they've got to take their time too, getting up there.
J.L.: Right, right. I just talked to (inaudible) in the locker room, and she's got a lot of blood on the floor. Hello?
D: I'm still here
J.L.: Alarms have gone off.
* * *
J.L.: Can I transfer you to a phone where I can lock myself in to an office?
D: If that's possible, that's great.
J.L.: OK, let me transfer you there (transfer music plays). OK, I'm in a secure office, and nobody can get in here unless they have a key.
D: OK, good. Are you in there by yourself?
J.L.: I am, yeah, it's our security office.
* * *
J.L.: Let me look (at the security cameras).
D: The first floor was secured, so they (police) should be on the second floor by now.
J.L.: OK. I can see . . . (inaudible) people were injured.
D: Pardon?
J.L.: When he came in, he just came over to customer service and told them to open the vault.
D: He told them to open the vault when he went over to customer service?
J.L: Yeah. "Open the vault, open the vault."
D: So this was possibly some type of robbery then that went bad?
J.L.: Correct. Correct.
* * *
D: Hold on just a second, Jodi.
J.L.: (gasp) Oh my gosh! It looks like the gun is laying over by customer service. There is an officer here now, I wonder if he . . .
D: Customer service on the third level?
J.L.: Correct, it looks like he might have killed himself (beginning to cry).
D: Do you see him laying by a . . . by a gun?
J.L.: I see him lying there by the gun (crying intensifies).
D: So you see a guy on camera laying by the gun on the floor. Is that correct?
J.L.: Correct, there is an officer there.
D: Does it look like that's the guy on the camera, is that the guy who was doing the shooting? Can you tell by the clothing?
J.L.: Yeah, it could have been. It's about the age. I'd have to see his face to be able to tell because of his mustache, it was like he had a mustache.
* * * |
http://www.omaha.com/index.php?u_page=2798&u_sid=10203988
_________________
The Medium is the Massage - Marshall McLuhan. |
|
| Back to top |
|
|
Mark Gobell
On Gardening Leave
Joined: 24 Jul 2006
Posts: 4529
|
|
| Back to top |
|
|
Mark Gobell
On Gardening Leave
Joined: 24 Jul 2006
Posts: 4529
|
| Posted: Fri Dec 07, 2007 10:45 am Post subject: |
|
|
| Quote: | Published Friday | December 7, 2007
Hawkins' stepfather, owner of rifle, was in Thailand Wednesday
BY LYNN SAFRANEK AND KARYN SPENCER
WORLD-HERALD STAFF WRITERS
While Robert Hawkins was killing Von Maur employees and shoppers with his stepfather's AK-47, the stepfather was vacationing thousands of miles away in Thailand, according to the stepfather's family and people familiar with the shooting investigation.
Although Hawkins' mother, Maribel "Molly" Rodriguez, was divorced from Mark Dotson, she and Hawkins had access to Dotson's Bellevue home while he was away, said Eric Dotson, Mark's brother.
Hawkins, 19, apparently took the rifle from a closet and put it in his car while his mother was gone for a while, Eric Dotson said.
On Wednesday, Hawkins used that rifle to kill five women and three men at the Westroads Mall store, then turned the gun on himself.
Investigators recovered the AK-47, which they initially had identified as an SKS assault rifle.
It is unknown where Hawkins got the gun's ammunition — two magazines with the capacity to fire multiple rounds.
Police Chief Thomas Warren estimated that Hawkins fired "in excess of 30 rounds" of the 7.62 mm ammunition while inside Von Maur.
The AK-47 is a semiautomatic assault weapon that generally is used by the military or collected by gun enthusiasts.
It is not accurate for long-range shooting, which makes the gun impractical as a hunting rifle. The automatic version is popular for military use because it is dependable and easy to manufacture.
AK-47s typically aren't sold by large retailers. For 10 years, manufacturing some assault weapons, including AK-47s, was illegal under a federal ban. The ban expired in 2004.
Mark Dotson is retired from the Air Force. He and Rodriguez were married from 1992 to 1997 but remained friends after their divorce. As recently as May, Rodriguez listed Dotson's address as hers.
Rodriguez contacted Mark Dotson when she realized that the rifle was missing, Dotson's brother said in a phone interview from Columbia, S.C. Dotson sent her an e-mail telling her to relax.
As the Dotson family heard news coverage of the mall massacre, Dotson's brothers suspected that the rifle belonged to him when they heard an assault rifle had been used. Several relatives are gun collectors.
"It's like a bad dream," Eric Dotson said.
Mark Dotson has cut his trip short and is returning to Bellevue.
During a tense press conference on Thursday, Mayor Mike Fahey said Omaha police are beefing up security at area malls, including providing extra patrols, in light of Wednesday's killings.
Meanwhile, investigators will continue the grisly job of processing the crime scene at Von Maur — an area Warren described as "very massive."
Fahey and Gov. Dave Heineman offered their condolences to the victims.
Flags in Nebraska should be flown at half-staff until Sunday, Heineman said.
Fahey said Wednesday's shooting marked one of the darkest days in his six years as Omaha's mayor.
"This was an ugly act of cowardice," he said.
Before a throng of national and local news media, Warren identified the dead and injured and provided more details about the shooting.
Eight of the dead, including Hawkins, were found on Von Maur's third floor. The ninth victim was on the second floor near the escalators.
"It appeared that the shooting victims were randomly selected," Warren said.
Warren said Hawkins had conversations earlier Wednesday with his mother and ex-girlfriend. He also sent the ex-girlfriend text messages on her cell phone.
A woman who answered the door at the 17-year-old girl's Papillion-area home on Thursday declined to comment.
At 1:42 p.m. Wednesday, 911 operators received the first call about shots fired at Von Maur, Warren said. The first Omaha police officers were dispatched two minutes later and arrived at 1:48 p.m. Warren said the two minutes were used to verify the address and callers' information, which is normal procedure.
Meanwhile, more people inside Von Maur were calling 911 to report multiple shots being fired inside the store.
The officers first established a perimeter on the main level of the mall and placed the mall on lockdown. After clearing the hallways, the chief said, they began searching the first floor of Von Maur.
Officers discovered the body of the first shooting victim on the store's second floor, then found several more on the third floor, near the customer service area. Hawkins' body also was found there.
At a Thursday afternoon press conference in Lincoln, Scot Adams, behavioral health director for HHS, said the state has gotten offers of help and support from other states that have experienced mass shootings. Calls have come from Utah, Pennsylvania and Colorado.
State and local mental health professionals had a response plan ready and put it into action Wednesday, he said.
World-Herald staff writers C. David Kotok and Martha Stoddard contributed to this report. |
http://www.omaha.com/index.php?u_page=2798&u_sid=10203759
_________________
The Medium is the Massage - Marshall McLuhan. |
|
| Back to top |
|
|
Mark Gobell
On Gardening Leave
Joined: 24 Jul 2006
Posts: 4529
|
| Posted: Fri Dec 07, 2007 10:49 am Post subject: |
|
|
| Quote: | Published Friday | December 7, 2007
Full lives cut short: Omaha victims' families mourn losses
BY NICHOLE AKSAMIT
WORLD-HERALD STAFF WRITER
• Victim, shot in the arm, describes shooting scene
• Memorial brings light to dark day
• Among the victims: shoppers, workers, mothers, fathers
• World-Herald Video: Mayor Fahey at Thursday's press conference
• World-Herald Video: Gov. Heineman at Thursday's press conference
• World-Herald Video: Omaha police chief at Thursday's press conference
• World-Herald Video: Von Maur president at Thursday's press conference
• Bush says the nation grieves with Omaha
• Three-fourths of blood lost, but man is expected to live
• Vigils bring light to dark day
• Malls say their security is sound
• Von Maur shooting press conference, Dec. 6, 2007
• Victim, shot in the arm, describes shooting scene
• Memorial brings light to dark day
• Among the victims: shoppers, workers, mothers, fathers
• World-Herald Video: Mayor Fahey at Thursday's press conference
• World-Herald Video: Gov. Heineman at Thursday's press conference
• World-Herald Video: Omaha police chief at Thursday's press conference
• World-Herald Video: Von Maur president at Thursday's press conference
• Bush says the nation grieves with Omaha
• Three-fourths of blood lost, but man is expected to live
• Vigils bring light to dark day
• Malls say their security is sound
The shooter's thin face is not the one the victims' families and friends want to see this day.
Kymi Johnson Rutledge, left, and Courtney Hinze mourn the Von Maur shooting victims during a prayer service Thursday evening at Christ Community Church. About 65 people attended the service in the church at 404 S. 108th Ave.
Through tears and heartache, they're remembering:
Angie Schuster, the 36-year-old beauty who loved children, her work in the girls department at Von Maur and her fiance, who planned to give her a ring for Christmas.
And Gary Joy, the 56-year-old janitor who wrote poetry and stories in his spare time.
And the fun and caring Beverly Flynn — a 47-year-old mom who gave rosebushes to her real estate clients and who worked as a gift-wrapper at Von Maur for the holidays because she loved Christmas.
And Dianne Clavin Trent, 53, who put her people skills from her years as an airline flight attendant to work as a customer service representative.
And Von Maur saleswoman Janet Jorgensen — a wife, mom and grandmother, a seamstress and cake-maker, and at age 66, the oldest person gunned down Wednesday.
And the youngest — the tall, bubbly, mature-beyond-her-24-years Maggie Webb, who had recently come to Omaha to run the store.
And the customers — kindly 65-year-old Council Bluffs retiree John McDonald and well-traveled 48-year-old ag chemical salesman Gary Scharf of Lincoln — who had the misfortune to be shopping Wednesday at what is arguably the city's most elegant department store.
In all, six Von Maur employees and two shoppers. Five women and three men. Each of them loved and deeply missed.
Omaha Police Chief Thomas Warren offered one explanation, based on store videotape, for why so many of the fallen were employees:
When the shooter first opened fire, he said, customers fled. But Von Maur employees helped shoppers to safety, and many stayed at their stations.
"I think it is important to recognize the heroism that was shown by some of the employees of Von Maur," Mayor Mike Fahey said Thursday. "They tried to do their best. . . . They stayed. Some were trying to help people."
Survivors are thinking, too, of the injured, two of them still recovering in Omaha hospitals:
The upbeat, sharp-dressing 61-year-old Fred Wilson, who always has a joke for the women he works with in customer service.
And his co-worker, 65-year-old Micheale Oldham.
And two other shoppers stung by bullets: 55-year-old Brad Stafford of Omaha and 34-year-old Omaha attorney Jeff Schaffart, who was shot on a lunch errand so many parents can relate to — finding a dress his 2-year-old could wear in Christmas photos.
World-Herald staff writers Nancy Gaarder, Cindy Gonzalez, Erin Grace, Matthew Hansen, C. David Kotok, Christine Laue, Leslie Reed and Karen Sloan contributed to this report.
* * * * *
The Victims
Beverly Flynn
Roses were her trademark
Beverly Flynn's trademark as a real estate agent was planting a rosebush in the yard of every new homeowner.
But Flynn, one of eight people killed by a gunman Wednesday at Von Maur department store, also was known for her deep devotion to her husband and three daughters, said her co-workers at NP Dodge.
"Her kids were like her everything," said Gena Schriver, a real estate agent who worked on the same team with Flynn.
Flynn, 47, had taken a part-time job at Von Maur wrapping gifts because she loved Christmas, Von Maur and being active — and having money to spend on her children, Schriver said. Flynn was supposed to be off work at 2 p.m. Wednesday, Schriver said.
The sad thing, Schriver said, is that "10 more minutes, and she would have been out of there."
Flynn had worked as a real estate agent for NP Dodge since 2006 and had moved several months ago from the company's office at 8701 West Dodge Road to its office at 16909 Lakeside Hills Plaza, said Derek Faulkner, managing broker for the West Dodge office.
"She was here seven or eight months before she transferred and just got to be everybody's friend in that short period," Faulkner said.
Her slogan on her business card referred to her frequent gift of rosebushes: "Just sit back and smell the roses while Beverly Flynn takes care of your every need."
"She was just a very fun person, kind of always had that smart-aleck side to her," Faulkner said. "A very nice person. Very loving mom."
Faulkner said Flynn spoke fondly of her husband, Pat, and the couple's weekend escapes to Colorado, where they own property.
While Faulkner said he didn't see her much with her two older daughters — Bobbi, who is in her mid-20s, and Samantha, who is in her teens — he noticed her interaction with the youngest, Gretchen. Samantha attends Millard's Central Middle School. Gretchen is a student at Millard's Sandoz Elementary.
"She would bring the little one with her, and you could tell how close those two were," Faulkner said.
Flynn shared the same motherly bond with all three girls, Schriver said. "They just had a very neat relationship."
Flynn was born in the Florence area of Omaha, Schriver said.
Her family could not be reached Thursday.
Flynn's NP Dodge co-workers were calling each other Thursday.
Sandy Dodge, president of NP Dodge Company, arranged for grief counselors at both offices, and the company established a memorial fund in Flynn's name.
"This is an event of enormous sadness for all of us," Dodge said.
Several agents also inquired about not attending the company Christmas party planned for Monday and directing the savings instead to the Flynn family. After polling other agents, company executives decided to cancel the party, a tradition of at least 40 years, Dodge said.
The party, which draws 400 to 500 people, has been at Champions Run for the past six or seven years.
The details were still being worked out Thursday afternoon, but it appeared that the cancellation would direct at least $25,000 to the family, Dodge said.
The grass-roots idea will help pay tribute to Flynn, he said.
"She was the kind of person who really cared about her clients," Dodge said.
In addition, Dodge said, in order to honor Flynn and all the victims, flags at the company will be flown at half-staff for the next week.
Schriver said she became worried when she was unable to reach Flynn on her cell phone after she learned of the shooting. She said she knew in her heart that something was wrong.
"She would have fought tooth and nail to let them let her call her family," Schriver said. "She would not have let us worry."
Schriver said it sounded like Flynn was fighting for her life when paramedics arrived — another characteristic of her devotion to family.
"She would have been fighting for her babies," said Schriver, her voice breaking.
Checks to the Beverly Flynn Fund may be addressed in care of N.P. Dodge Jr., NP Dodge Co., 8701 West Dodge Road, Omaha, NE 68114.
— Christine Laue
* * *
Janet D. Jorgensen
Saleswoman loved family
Janet D. Jorgensen and her husband, Ron, planned to celebrate their 50th wedding anniversary next year.
She was a full-time saleswoman on the third floor of the Von Maur department store, her husband said, when she was killed Wednesday.
Relatives described her Thursday as a fine saleswoman who worked in the gifts department, a section that sold crystal and other fine items.
A sister, Mary Bratty of Omaha, said there were times when Jorgensen would shop for customers or deliver items to customers' homes.
"She went above and beyond," Bratty said.
Ron Jorgensen said their 50th anniversary actually took place a few months ago, but they delayed their celebration while he battled health problems.
They had three children and eight grandchildren, he said. Janet Jorgensen, 66, was the oldest person to perish in the attack.
"She was a wonderful wife, mother and grandmother," her husband said Thursday. "She, along with me — we love family. That's our thing in life — family. That was our life."
She also was a fine seamstress and cake-maker, her husband said. She routinely made the cakes for birthday celebrations.
He said she had worked at the department store since it opened 12 years ago.
She is survived by three children: Ronalene Husk of Fort Calhoun (married to Roland Husk); Donna Schaefer of the Irvington area (married to Randy Schaefer); and Ron Jorgensen Jr. of Fort Calhoun (married to Kelli Jorgensen).
— Rick Ruggles
* * *
Gary Joy
Literature was his love
Inez Joy, 91, clutched her younger sister's hand and stoically faced a gaggle of photographers and reporters to talk about Gary, the younger of her two sons.
She had faced tragedy before and appeared to greet this new one with resolve, compassion for her son's killer and a hope that by following Gary's wishes to share his organs and by facing the news media, some good could come of this.
Gary graduated from Bellevue High in 1969 and later earned a degree in literature, his passion, from Bellevue University. He was married and divorced. He had no children.
Gary was someone everyone could count on. He visited his mother at her home at Skyline Manor. He drove his 86-year-old Aunt Lorraine, who still had her keys but didn't do long road trips, out of town. He liked his maintenance job at Von Maur; he liked to write poetry and stories, which he shared with his mother.
His father, Terrance, preceded him in death. He also is survived by a brother, James Joy.
When Lorraine showed up with a police officer Wednesday to tell Inez what happened, the mother considered the other tragedy she had weathered — a brother and sister murdered in Texas — and the role mental illness could have played when Robbie Hawkins started firing in the Westroads.
"I don't even think he knew Gary," Lorraine Hedman, her sister said. "We've got a lot of sick people in this world.
"He should have been helped along the way," Inez said of the killer. "He was only 19."
Her son was 56. She followed his instructions to have his organs donated. It was just like Gary to help someone.
Jim Andresen, 40, had worked at Von Maur only a few months but had gotten to know Gary Joy — his partner in the housekeeping department — pretty well.
Side by side, the two would unload merchandise from trucks in the early morning. The rest of the day they would change light bulbs, empty trash, return clothes to trucks for transfer to other stores and do other janitorial duties.
"He was my partner," Andresen said.
Andresen hid by himself for 40 minutes until police found him there.
Andresen recalled having once told Joy how much he loved an old eight-track tape of Christmas carols by the Jackson 5. When Joy asked why he didn't listen to it anymore, Andresen laughed and said he didn't have an eight-track player.
Joy found the songs on a compact disc and gave it to Andresen.
"I have that to remember my friend by," Andresen said.
— Cindy Gonzalez and Erin Grace
* * *
John McDonald
Retiree was kind man
John V. McDonald, with whom she'd worked for eight to 10 years, was a "wonderfully kind man," said Janet Bowers.
McDonald, 65, one of those killed Wednesday at Westroads, retired from Northern Natural Gas in Omaha in 2000. He had worked there 27 years.
His job title at the Omaha company was "administrative specialist." Bowers worked with him in a group that analyzed business operations and opportunities, many of them dealing with regulatory matters.
"He worked a lot in information technology," she said. "We relied on him for different software things."
Another co-worker, Tony Mayer, said McDonald worked in information technology when he joined Northern and became a manager there.
Northern was a subsidiary of the former Enron Corp. McDonald opted not to move to Houston when Enron moved there in the 1980s. He joined the business development group to stay in Omaha.
McDonald lived in a condominium community in Council Bluffs. A neighbor, Shirley Acebdo, described him and his wife, Kathleen, as "lovely people."
A daughter, Suzanne Shehan, is a partner in the Kutak Rock law firm in Omaha, and a son, Gregory, lives in Wisconsin.
Shehan survived the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks in New York City. She was in the 22-story World Trade Center Marriott Hotel, sandwiched between the two towers, when terrorists flew planes into the buildings.
She ran from the collapsing towers as debris fell on the street behind her.
— Virgil Larson
* * *
Gary Scharf
Salesman had deep roots
A fatal car crash would have at least made sense — Gary Scharf drove all over the Midwest, piling up 60,000 miles a year making sales calls in the company car.
A plane crash would've made sense, too, says a longtime friend. Scharf constantly boarded flights to all corners of the United States, doing business for agricultural chemical companies that handed him awards and gave him promotions.
But Scharf died because he had some time to blow before a business flight out of Omaha on Wednesday afternoon, said his longtime friend, Mark Pieper.
He died because he rushed into Von Maur to buy some Christmas presents.
He died because a suicidal 19-year-old shot him while he shopped, pulling the trigger and never learning that Gary Scharf was the proud father of a son who is also 19.
"He was just stopping to pick up some stuff from the mall," Pieper said Thursday. "To think he died because of something so random . . . it's hard to get your head around."
Scharf, a 48-year-old Lincoln resident, grew up on a ranch outside Curtis, Neb.
He took a familiar path to success for Nebraska farm boys, studying agricultural economics at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, joining the Farmhouse fraternity and then moving up the corporate ladder at agricultural chemical companies, including Syngenta, Makhteshim Agan of North America and LG Life Sciences.
A series of promotions eventually put him in charge of hundreds of employees as a national sales manager.
Even then, Scharf stayed connected to western Nebraska, driving his pickup truck home to Curtis whenever he could to hunt pheasant and quail and visit his parents, John and Doris.
He adored his dog, Red, a golden retriever. Scharf paid for chemotherapy treatment after a veterinarian diagnosed Red with cancer, Pieper said.
And he retained the rural Nebraska sturdiness so easily lost in corporate boardrooms, friends and family members said Thursday.
He has served as the board president of the Nebraska FFA.
His ex-wife, Kim, told the Associated Press that "you'd never meet a more honorable and loyal man."
Scharf spoke to his son, Steven, a 19-year-old UNL student, by cell phone just hours before he died, Pieper said.
In recent years, Scharf turned down higher-paying jobs in other states because he wanted to stay close to his family, Pieper said.
"That was the sort of guy he was," Pieper said. "Nebraska was his home."
— Matthew Hansen
* * *
Angie Schuster
Engagement ring waited
Angella "Angie" Schuster moved in with her fiance, Greg O'Neil, just last month.
He intended to give his tall, thin, beauty an engagement ring to make it official on Christmas — or maybe a few days early, to catch her off-guard.
Their plans for a life together ended Wednesday, when Schuster, a manager in the girls department on Von Maur's third floor, was gunned down at work.
"She was wonderful, gorgeous," O'Neil said Thursday morning, choking through his tears. "The most loving, dedicated, committed, just everything — just beautiful in every way. She was my soul mate."
Schuster, 36, was born on Valentine's Day, said her older sister, Donna Kenkel.
She grew up in Dubuque, Iowa, and graduated from Dubuque Senior High School in 1989.
She attended the University of Northern Iowa and graduated in 1994 with a bachelor's degree in elementary education and art.
Kenkel said her sister taught as a substitute but didn't find a full-time teaching position that suited her. Schuster moved in with Kenkel and her family in Omaha shortly after graduating from college.
Kenkel said her sister loved children. She doted on her nephew and two nieces — and on O'Neil's daughter, Meghan — showering them with gifts from the stores where she worked. Kenkel said Schuster had worked at Carter's, the baby's and children's outlet store in Gretna, and at the J.C. Penney store in Oak View Mall before joining Von Maur more than six years ago.
That's about when O'Neil met her. He used to work at Von Maur, too. The pair had been dating about a year and a half.
O'Neil's mother, Sandy O'Neil, said Schuster had been part of the family for more than a year — eating supper with them several nights a week and even going on vacation with the whole gang.
"She was so sincere and so real and so caring and loving and so nonjudgmental," said Sandy O'Neil. "She was just the most wonderful person in the world."
Besides Kenkel, Schuster is survived by a younger sister, Brenda Schuster of Norfolk. Their parents are deceased.
Kenkel said that memorial service dates and details were still being determined but that a funeral might be held at St. Robert Bellarmine Catholic Church, where Schuster had worshipped with O'Neil.
— Nichole Aksamit and Michaela Saunders
* * *
Dianne Trent
Beauty had people skills
Dianne Clavin Trent, 53, of Omaha, was a former airline flight attendant who returned to Omaha from Oregon about eight years ago to be closer to her family after her husband, Pete, died unexpectedly.
She had worked in customer service at Von Maur for about eight years.
Although Trent and her husband had traveled the world — for a time they had lived in Bogotá, Colombia, while Pete Trent had worked in aerial eradication of drug crops — Trent's brother and three of her four sisters lived in Omaha, a nephew, Mike Taylor of Omaha, said Thursday.
A widow with no children, Trent treated her 10 nieces and 13 nephews as if they were her own children, Taylor said.
In a statement released through the office of family lawyer Dennis P. Lee, Trent's family also described her as "a gentle, generous soft-spoken woman who loved the Lord."
Trent grew up in Omaha. She attended St. Pius and Marian High School and graduated from Benson High School.
A blonde with blue eyes, she stood barely 5 feet tall, kept her skin tanned and had a knock-out smile, her nephew said.
"She was very beautiful," he said. "She liked to travel a lot. Her favorite thing in the world was shopping. She worked there at Von Maur and Mom (Kathy Taylor) and her sisters and Dianne shopped there a lot, too."
"She had really great people skills. She was always smiling. You really couldn't turn her down for anything," Taylor said.
Taylor said that even when Trent lived elsewhere, she frequently returned to Omaha for visits.
"We did a lot of vacationing at lakes," Taylor said. "Her favorite thing was boating, but she preferred to stay on the raft and read a book and get some sun and get a tan."
He said she was a gentle and giving person who always kept pets. He remembered she kept sheepdogs when she lived in Oregon
"She was very generous, particularly considering she wasn't making very much money," he said.
Trent is survived by her sisters, Kathy Taylor, Kellie Schlecht and Sandi Clark, all of Omaha; Eileen Litwa of Clifton Park, N.Y.; and her brother, Bill Clavin, of Omaha.
Her funeral arrangements are to be announced Sunday.
— Leslie Reed
* * *
Maggie Webb
Manager had empathy
On the cusp of a life full of possibilities, 24-year-old Maggie L. Webb had just taken over the responsibility of managing Von Maur, one of Omaha's premier department stores.
Employees quickly came to know the young woman as an energetic, friendly boss with a sparkle in her eyes and empathy for them.
"She was the best manager I ever worked for," said Jim Andresen , a maintenance department worker whose duties included unloading merchandise from trucks each morning.
"Maggie actually would get out in her suit and help us unload the truck every day."
That kind of side-by-side work ethic manifested itself across the store.
Chuck Wright, who worked in men's accessories, said Webb would stop by to see how things were going and then "immediately" head to the backroom to see if there was any stock she could help set out.
"She was probably one of the nicest people I had the privilege of working under," he said. "She didn't act like a store manager, although you knew she was and respected her."
Heidi Cvilikas, cosmetics manager at Westroads' Von Maur store, recalled her boss as "sweet and bubbly."
"People took to her in a kind way," Cvilikas said.
Webb came to the Omaha store with experience managing a smaller Von Maur store, Cvilikas said.
That wasn't surprising, she said, because the company is adamant about cultivating young talent.
"I think she was respected because she had a lot of respect for everyone she dealt with," Cvilikas said.
Wright recalled that Webb liked to tell employees that she grew up going to the chain's home store in Davenport, Iowa, with her father. "It seemed like it was a part of growing up that she really liked," he said.
Webb was the daughter of Dave and Vicki Webb of Port Byron, Ill.
She graduated from Moline High School in 2001, the Quad- City Times reported, and from Illinois State University in 2005.
Moline Principal Bill Burrus told the newspaper that in Webb's short time at the school, she had a tremendous impact.
"One of my staff commented to me about Maggie, saying, 'She was one of the good ones.' They paused, and said, 'No, one of the great ones.'"
Webb was passionate about her job, Cvilikas said, and her office was right behind customer service.
"I'm sure she was in customer service or back in her office" when the shooting started, she said. "When she heard everything going on, I can guarantee you that she ran out of her office and right into the whole thing."
When Cvilikas asked Webb recently about her Thanksgiving plans, the new store manager said she didn't have family in town.
"She said she would probably just hang out at her apartment, get a rotisserie chicken at Baker's and two sides for $6.99, or whatever it was.
"And maybe get a bottle of wine and cuddle up with her cat."
Jo Williams, secretary to the Moline High principal, told the Quad-City Times that Webb was involved in many activities at the school, among them the Contemporaires, a dance team that performed at halftime of basketball games.
She was a member of the Spanish Club, the Spanish Honors Society, the Key Club and Kaliedoscript, a monthly publication at the school.
Webb was involved in Student Congress, played basketball her freshman and sophomore years and ran track her freshman year. She was on the school Crime Stoppers board.
All the energy that she exhibited in high school showed through in her work at Von Maur. Cvilikas recalled Webb's "sparkle."
"Her whole face lit up when she smiled."
— Nancy Gaarder and Cindy Gonzalez |
http://www.omaha.com/index.php?u_page=2798&u_sid=10203030
_________________
The Medium is the Massage - Marshall McLuhan. |
|
| Back to top |
|
|
Mark Gobell
On Gardening Leave
Joined: 24 Jul 2006
Posts: 4529
|
| Posted: Fri Dec 07, 2007 11:33 am Post subject: |
|
|
NewsTarget.com
| Quote: | Omaha Shooter Robert Hawkins Had Been "Treated" For ADHD, Depression
Thursday, December 06, 2007 by: Mike Adams
Key concepts: Robert Hawkins, violence and psychiatry.
(NewsTarget) America seems shocked that, yet again, a young male would pick up an assault rifle and murder his fellow citizens, then take his own life. This is what happened last night in Omaha, Nebraska, where the 19-year-old Hawkins killed himself and eight other people with an assault rifle. Those lacking keen observation skills are quick to blame guns for this tragedy, but others who are familiar with the history of such violent acts by young males instantly recognize a more sinister connection: A history of treatment with psychiatric drugs for depression and ADHD.
It all started in Columbine, Colorado, when Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold massacred their way into the history books on April 20, 1999 by killing 12 and wounding 23 people. The mainstream media virtually glorified the event, yet utterly failed to report the connection between violence in young men and treatment with psychiatric drugs. (Both Harris and Klebold were taking antidepressant drugs.)
It's a little known fact that antidepressant drugs have never been tested on children nor approved by the FDA for use on children. It is well established in the scientific literature, however, that such drugs cause young men to think violent thoughts and commit violent acts. This is precisely why the U.K. has outright banned the prescribing of such drugs to children. Yet here in the United States -- the capitol of gun violence by kids on depression drugs -- the FDA and drug companies pretend that mind-altering drugs have no link whatsoever to behavior.
Enormous evidence linking mind-altering drugs with violent acts
In 2005, I reported on this site that Eli Lilly had full knowledge of a 1200% increase in suicide risk for takers of their Prozac drug, a popular anti-depressant SSRI medication. (See http://www.newstarget.com/003086.html )
In 2006, we reported the results of a study published in the Archives of General Psychiatry showing that teens taking antidepressant drugs are more likely to commit suicide (and to be "successful" at completing the act). See http://www.newstarget.com/020643.html
On September 11, 2006, I reported on the link between antidepressant drugs and violent behavior yet again. (See http://www.newstarget.com/020394.html ) In that article, I explained, "If you're going to alter the brain chemistry of these children, you had better be prepared for the results. The result we're seeing now is mass killings. Elsewhere around the world, where children aren't doped up on all these drugs, we don't see this kind of behavior. This is what happens when you change children's brain chemistry; you get these results..."
The very next day, we published a report about the anti-depressant drug Paxil doubling the risk of violent behavior. (See http://www.newstarget.com/020406.html ) In that article, I stated, "This finding helps explain why school shootings are almost always conducted by children who are taking antidepressants. We also know that SSRIs cause children to disconnect from reality. When you combine that with a propensity for violence, you create a dangerous recipe for school shootings and other adolescent violence.
In April of this year, I also reported on the link between antidepressant drugs and the Virginia Tech shooting. See http://www.newstarget.com/021798.html
What I said in that article has urgent application right now, following the Omaha shooting:
A study published in the Public Library of Science Medicine (an open source medical journal) explored these same links in detail. (See Antidepressants and Violence: Problems at the Interface of Medicine and Law, by David Healy, Andrew Herxheimer, David B. Menkes)
The authors note that "Some regulators, such as the Canadian regulators, have also referred to risks of treatment-induced activation leading to both self-harm and harm to others" and the "United States labels for all antidepressants as of August 2004 note that 'anxiety, agitation, panic attacks, insomnia, irritability, hostility, aggressiveness, impulsivity, akathisia (psychomotor restlessness), hypomania, and mania have been reported in adult and pediatric patients being treated with antidepressants for major depressive disorder as well as for other indications, both psychiatric and nonpsychiatric'".
In other words, the link between antidepressants and violence has been known for years by the very people manufacturing, marketing or prescribing the drugs. As the author of the study mentioned above concluded, "The new issues highlighted by these cases need urgent examination jointly by jurists and psychiatrists in all countries where antidepressants are widely used."
That was last year, well before this latest shooting. The warning signs were there, and they've been visible for a long time. Medical authorities can hardly say they are "shocked" by this violent behavior. After all, the same pattern of violence among antidepressant takers has been observed, documented and published in numerous previous cases.
Not surprised at what happened in Omaha
The people of Omaha may be surprised at what happened there yesterday, but I'm not. Why? Because the shooter, Robert Hawkins, had a history of being "treated" for both depression and ADHD (Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder). (Source: Associated Press)
And what is the standard American psychiatric "treatment" for these conditions? Mind-altering drugs, of course.
ADHD, for example, is treated with a drug that used to be an illegal street drug called "speed." It's an amphetamine, and recent research published in the August, 2007 issue of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry reveals that Ritalin and other ADHD drugs actually stunt the growth of children, causing their brains and bodies to be physically altered. (See http://www.newstarget.com/021944.html )
Depression, of course, is treated with SSRI drugs, none of which have ever been safety approved by the FDA for use on children or teens. In other words, the use of these drugs on teenagers is a grand, mind-altering medical experiment, and what we just witnessed in Omaha is one result of that experiment.
There will be more. I hate to be accurate about this grisly prediction, because I grieve for the families of those lost to pharmaceutically-induced violence, but the truth is that until we stop drugging our children with psychotropic drugs, the shootings are not going to stop.
Big Pharma is to blame for this one, not the manufacturer of the gun. That gun has a trigger, you see, and the trigger was pulled by a finger. The finger was connected via a series of nerves to a brain, and that brain was altered by psychotropic drugs. The brain wasn't functioning like a normal, healthy, well-nourished brain; it was functioning like a zoned out "zombie" brain permanently distorted by psychiatric drugs.
Sending a teenager out into the public doped up on mind-altering drugs that we KNOW are linked to violence -- and jacked up on junk foods (he worked at McDonald's) -- is a certain recipe for disaster. Big Pharma executives, drug reps and the irresponsible psychiatrists who dish these pills out to teenagers might as well have just walked right into the mall and set off a bomb themselves. These are the people ultimately responsible for the tragedy in Omaha. Hawkins may have pulled the trigger, but modern psychiatry drugged him with violence-inducing chemicals. The fact that such drugs promote violence isn't even disputed. It's printed right on the warning labels of those drugs!
And as sad as this tragedy is for all those affected by this medication-induced violence, the truly sad part is that America still hasn't learned this lesson. If you drug the children with chemicals that cause violence, you're going to see more shootings. It's as simple as that. And if you take away the guns, you'll see bombs, knives or machetes used in these attacks. When disturbed young boys are doped up on psychotropic drugs that promote violence -- and they're drugged by the hundreds of thousands -- it's like playing a national game of Russian roulette (with apologies to Russia). Sooner or later, another kid whose mind has been altered by Ritalin, Prozac or some other drug is going to walk into yet another school or mall and start killing people. This kind of behavior is a direct product of chemical-based psychiatric "treatment."
The criminals running modern psychiatry
In fact, I predict we'll see another such shooting in the next 30 days, if not sooner. And yet, even with the increasing frequency of these events, the unholy alliance between Big Pharma and the immensely evil psychiatric industry will continue. Yet more children will be put on mind-altering drugs that stunt their growth, alter their brain chemistry, and turn them into mind-numbed massacre drones who acquire dangerous weapons and open fire in public places.
The psychiatric industry, though, thinks that yet MORE children need "treatment" with drugs for ADHD and depression. In fact, an industry press release recently claimed that only one-third of those children "suffering" from ADHD are receiving appropriate "treatment" for the condition. Of course, those are just code words for "drugging the children with high-profit pharmaceuticals." When the psychiatric authorities say "treatment," what they mean is "more drugging."
Want to learn the horrifying, yet true, history of modern psychiatry? Check out www.CCHR.org - the Citizens' Commission on Human Rights. They have a documentary so downright shocking that I couldn't even finish watching the whole thing. It's called Psychiatry: An Industry of Death.
Psyched Out: How Psychiatry Sells Mental Illness and Pushes Pills That Kill. Also be sure to check out the shocking book by Kelly Patricia O'Meara called Psyched Out: How Psychiatry Sells Mental Illness and Pushes Pills That Kill. This book explains exactly why kids like Robert Hawkins who have been treated with psychiatric drugs end up shooting innocents.
What could have healed Robert Hawkins and saved lives
So what's the solution to all this? Robert Hawkins could have been healed with a radical change in diet that supports healthy brain chemistry. His parents or caretakers should have stopped the junk food, ended the medication and put him on raw, living foods and daily superfood smoothies, fresh vegetable juices, raw nuts and seeds and other wholesome, non-processed foods. Nutrition is the single most powerful factor determining healthy moods and behavior, and virtually all young men who commit violent acts (including the vast majority of those imprisoned in the U.S. today) suffer from wild nutritional deficiencies.
Robert Hawkins could have been a healthy, stable and normal kid with the help of some real food, real nutrition and real love from a supporting family. Instead, he lived on junk food, worked at McDonald's and took medication pills as directed by his psychiatric doctor. The results speak for themselves: This recipe of processed food and mind-altering drugs created a monster, and yesterday in Omaha, that monster exploded in a rage of violence.
If we don't learn from all this and stop drugging our nation's children, then those innocents in Omaha will have died in vain. And I ask the question: How many more innocent Americans must pay the price for medication-induced violence?
Ask yourself one question: Why does the FDA continue to allow these dangerous drugs to be prescribed to children and teens when 1) They have never been tested on children or teens, and 2) Other countries have already banned the prescribing of these drugs to children and teens?
Story Notes: The Associated Press originally reported Hawkins' age as 20 years old, but corrected it to 19 years old following a correction by local police. Hawkins was not reported to have been taking medications at the precise time of the shooting, but his caretaker, Debora Maruca-Kovac, said that "he had been treated in the past for depression and attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder." We do not know exactly which drugs Hawkins had been treated with in the past, and we hope the names of those drugs will surface in future reports on this tragedy.
NewsTarget deeply regrets the loss of life witnessed in this event, and we commit to doing our part to end these medication-induced crimes that continue to be perpetrated by Big Pharma and modern psychiatry. You have permission to forward or reprint this article, with appropriate credit and a link back to this URL.
###
About the author: Mike Adams is a natural health author and technology pioneer with a passion for teaching people how to improve their health He is a prolific writer and has published thousands of articles, interviews, reports and consumer guides, impacting the lives of millions of readers around the world who are experiencing phenomenal health benefits from reading his articles. Adams is an independent journalist with strong ethics who does not get paid to write articles about any product or company. In 2007, Adams launched EcoLEDs, a maker of super bright LED light bulbs that are 1000% more energy efficient than incandescent lights. He's also the founder and CEO of a well known email mail merge software developer whose software, 'Email Marketing Director,' currently runs the NewsTarget email subscriptions. Adams is currently the executive director of the Consumer Wellness Center, a 501(c)3 non-profit, and regularly pursues cycling, nature photography, Capoeira and Pilates. He's also author of numerous health books published by Truth Publishing and is the creator of several consumer-oriented grassroots campaigns, including the Spam. Don't Buy It! campaign, and the free downloadable Honest Food Guide. He also created the free reference sites HerbReference.com and HealingFoodReference.com. Adams believes in free speech, free access to nutritional supplements and the ending of corporate control over medicines, genes and seeds. Known on the 'net as 'the Health Ranger,' Adams shares his ethics, mission statements and personal health statistics at www.HealthRanger.org |
http://www.newstarget.com/022330.html
_________________
The Medium is the Massage - Marshall McLuhan. |
|
| Back to top |
|
|
|
FAQ
Search
Memberlist
Chat
Usergroups
Calendar
Register
Profile
Log in to check your private messages
Log in
