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| Thread: Mall Shooting, Omaha, NE | |
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Wolfman
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posted December 06, 2007 02:45 PM |
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Edited by Wolfman at 14:46, 06 Dec 2007.
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Mall Shooting, Omaha, NE
OMAHA, Nebraska (CNN) -- A 19-year-old gunman who police said killed eight people and then himself at a Nebraska mall left a suicide note predicting the shootings would make him famous, his landlord said.
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.
The shootings inside the Von Maur department store at the popular Westroads Mall in Omaha sent panicked holiday shoppers fleeing for cover.
"It was just so loud, and then it was silence," said witness Jennifer Kramer, who hid behind a clothing rack. "I was scared to death he'd be walking around looking for someone else."
Police identified the gunman as Robert A. Hawkins of Bellvue, Nebraska.
Chief Thomas Warren of the Omaha Police Department called the shooting "premeditated," but said it "appears to be very random and without provocation."
Debora Maruca Kovac, Hawkins' landlord, said she found the suicide note after getting a phone call from Hawkins about 1 p.m., just minutes before the shootings. Video Watch landlord describe phone call from shooter »
"He basically said how sorry he was for everything," Maruca Kovac said of the note. "He didn't want to be a burden to people and that he was a piece of s--- all of his life and that now he'd be famous."
She said Hawkins was a friend of her sons and "reminded me of a 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."
She described Hawkins as well-behaved, although "he had a lot of emotional problems, obviously."
Maruca Kovac told the Omaha World-Herald that Hawkins showed her an SKS semiautomatic Russian military rifle the night before the rampage, but she wasn't alarmed.
The shootings began about 1:42 p.m. (2:42 p.m. ET).
Seven people were found dead at the scene by officers who arrived six minutes later; two others, a male and a female, died after being transported to Creighton University Medical Center, said Fire Chief Robert Dahlquist.
A Creighton spokeswoman said a second female underwent 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, had 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.
Warren said Hawkins was armed with an SKS assault rifle. His body, and the weapon, were found on the store's third floor, he said.
Maruca Kovac told CNN that Hawkins left the house Wednesday about 11 a.m., and called the house about two hours later, sounding upset.
"He just said he wanted to thank me for everything I'd done for him ... and he was sorry," Maruca Kovac said. He told her he had gotten fired from his job at a McDonald's restaurant, she said.
"I said, 'Come home and we'll talk about it,' " she recounted. "He said, 'It's too late.' He said he'd left a note explaining everything."
Kramer told CNN she heard at least 25 shots. Video Watch witnesses describe the ordeal »
"I looked at my mom and said, 'We need to get out of here. Those are gunshots,' " Kramer said. "I just grabbed my mom and we ran to the back of the men's department and hid in some pants racks."
"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.
She said as she was being escorted out by police, she saw a man lying injured by the escalator where she had been previously.
Mall employee Charissa Tatoon said a man by an escalator near her was heard saying he was calling 911. See a map of where the shooting took place »
"Immediately after that, the shooter shot down from the third floor and shot him on the second floor," she said.
"All of us were slightly confused because we didn't know what it was," Tatoon said. "Immediately after that, there was a series of maybe 20 to 25 more shots up on the third floor."
Warren, the police chief, said the victims included five females and three males, not including Hawkins. The shooting appeared to be contained in the Von Maur store, he said.
"We believe there was one shooter, and one shooter only," he said. Video Watch police talk about the shooting »
Maruca Kovac said Hawkins' mental state seemed to be improving but he had been through a rough patch recently.
"When he first came to live with us, he was in the fetal position and chewed his fingernails all the time," she said. But she said she thought he was improving, as he had gotten a job, a haircut and a girlfriend.
However, she said Hawkins and his girlfriend had broken up in the last couple of weeks, and he had taken it hard. Then he got fired from McDonald's on Wednesday.
She said late Wednesday that authorities were searching her house for evidence.
"My kids are devastated," she said. "We're all in shock."
A school district spokeswoman said he attended Papillion-La Vista High School until he withdrew in March 2006. The World-Herald said he later earned his GED.
President Bush had visited Omaha on Wednesday before the shooting.
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"The president is deeply saddened by the shootings in Omaha," White House press secretary Dana Perino said. "His thoughts and prayers are with the victims and their families."
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.
Welcome to Omaha, I go to school just down the road at the University of Nebraska at Omaha. I also drove past there maybe 40 minutes before the shots rang out. I was a little surprised no one posted on this yet.
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bixie
Promising
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my common sense is tingling!
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posted December 06, 2007 06:48 PM |
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i feel sorry for those families invovled, but if people are still willing to keep their guns in the USA, then I'm not surprised that this happened.
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Love, Laugh, Learn, Live.
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TitaniumAlloy
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posted December 07, 2007 01:45 AM |
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So selfish and cowardly, why couldn't he have shot himself first..
Quote:
Maruca Kovac told the Omaha World-Herald that Hawkins showed her an SKS semiautomatic Russian military rifle the night before the rampage, but she wasn't alarmed.
Oh, the nutcase living in my house has a high powered rifle... nothing sus.... 
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John says to live above hell.
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Binabik
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posted December 07, 2007 01:59 AM |
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Quote:
"When he first came to live with us, he was in the fetal position and chewed his fingernails all the time,"
However, she said Hawkins and his girlfriend had broken up in the last couple of weeks, and he had taken it hard. Then he got fired from McDonald's on Wednesday.
Nope, nothing suspicious at all about this guy having an SKS.
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roy-algriffin
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Chocolate ice cream zealot
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posted December 07, 2007 03:00 AM |
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Its not exactly fairly obvious that someone you have been living with for a very long time would do something evil like that. Its probably quite different if your the person whos known him for years then an outsider.
Im appaled by this. But i guess thats one of the risks of a chain reaction like that girlfriend and being fired.Going insane that is.
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baklava
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Mostly harmless
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posted December 07, 2007 09:01 PM |
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Quote:
But i guess thats one of the risks of a chain reaction like that girlfriend and being fired.Going insane that is.
Oh come on, people have survived concentration camps and still didn't start shooting people afterwards.
I'm surprised that the US public still doesn't bring up the issue of stricter gun control. These things are getting more and more often...
Soon there'll be more American than foreign terrorists.
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"Let me tell you what the blues
is. When you ain't got no
money,
you got the blues."
Howlin Wolf
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Binabik
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posted December 07, 2007 09:34 PM |
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Quote:
I'm surprised that the US public still doesn't bring up the issue of stricter gun control.
Actually stricter enforcement of existing laws would go a lot further.
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roy-algriffin
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Chocolate ice cream zealot
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posted December 07, 2007 10:19 PM |
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Quote:
Oh come on, people have survived concentration camps and still didn't start shooting people afterwards.
I'm surprised that the US public still doesn't bring up the issue of stricter gun control. These things are getting more and more often...
Soon there'll be more American than foreign terrorists.
Theres certainly no excuse for it  i cant come up with a logical explanation why someone would go around killing others when that happened to him and the people that came out of concentration camps didnt.
But then theres the brief experiences that madden you and the long ones that just suck all the happiness out of you
Theres no excuse for better gun control except that constrituion thingy i think that all people have the right to bear arms.
Which is kinda outdated. Were past swords here and the communities are a lot less tight on the whole then they were back then.
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"Am i a demon? No im a priest of the light! THE BLOODY RED LIGHT"
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TitaniumAlloy
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posted December 08, 2007 06:48 AM |
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Quote:
I'm surprised that the US public still doesn't bring up the issue of stricter gun control. These things are getting more and more often...
Soon there'll be more American than foreign terrorists.
No the response is "ok... we need MORE guns, to shoot the people who already have guns!"
wait a second..?
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John says to live above hell.
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Aculias
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Pretty Boy Angel Sacraficer
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posted December 08, 2007 07:18 AM |
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It's actually a real pity.
People killing other people just to be famous.
Who would he even care if he takes his own life anyways.
Thats just one ignorant example over many who wanted to be popular by killing people.
This world is very crazy.
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Dreaming of a Better World
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Consis
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Of Ruby
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posted December 08, 2007 05:14 PM |
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Wolfman,
I think this is a good example why we should have the right to bear arms. If someone who owned a gun had been there and was carrying the piece on them then this guy could have been stopped dead in his tracks before anymore people were killed.
It's all very simple to the mind of a person like this. They ask themselves, "Where can I kill the most people with the least amount of resistance?"
1. Sports event such as football game??? Nope they have metal detectors and too much security.
2. Big huge corporate office building??? Nope they have security in place as well.
3. Train systems? Nope Joe Biden has already warned us about that.
4. Buses? *!bingo!* But wait a bunch of them might try to rush me in close quarters. Bad idea. I might only kill two or three that way.
5. A shopping mall? No way they have lower security than a corporate office....do they? I guess I'll check out the mall nearest me and see for myself. It's really big and wide open for space. That would mean I'd have some time to hold off an angry group at a distance with my weapon. I could use pillars and storefronts as cover.
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Roses Are Red And So Am I
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Geny
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What if Elvin was female?
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posted December 08, 2007 05:24 PM |
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Quote:
If someone who owned a gun had been there and was carrying the piece on them then this guy could have been stopped dead in his tracks before anymore people were killed.
You mean that people who have gun license carry a gun with them most of the time? If so, then no wonder the security at the mall isn't tight, they see guns all the time and don't mind them that much.
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DON'T BE A NOOB, JOIN A.D.V.E.N.T.U.R.E.
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SirDunco
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Supreme Hero
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posted December 08, 2007 08:37 PM |
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To quote Chris Rock
"We don't need stricter gun-control, what we need is stricter bullet control. If one bullet cost $5000, everyone would think twice before shooting someone..."
And Consis, wow. Do you really mean that?
Quote:
No the response is "ok... we need MORE guns, to shoot the people who already have guns!"
wait a second..?
Funny thing TA was one step ahead, thanks man. Fight fire with fire, the best way surely. I know the issue is not really simple, but there is a clear connection between the obsession of the American society with violence, the gun restriction laws, number of guns owned and incidents such as this one.
Sure, it's your constitutional right, that's always a "strong" argument. But it is hundred of years old, it was a whole different time and was put in the constitution for different purposes.
But sure, let the gun wackos have their guns, for all I could care sell them in Wallmart next to the canned fruit, but then don't be shocked.
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bixie
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my common sense is tingling!
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posted December 08, 2007 10:11 PM |
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Quote:
To quote Chris Rock
"We don't need stricter gun-control, what we need is stricter bullet control. If one bullet cost $5000, everyone would think twice before shooting someone..."
i agree with that quote so much, because it is a much simpler
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antipaladin
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of Ooohs and Aaahs
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posted December 08, 2007 10:25 PM |
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@consis: on the countery frinde,this is why you should not allowed to be waring a piece without ceritan physcological and health conditions,those thinks happen uselly,but security,should not premit enter of a gun,no metter liscens,yes no,you cant enter,period. that put a stop to it.
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types in obscure english
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roy-algriffin
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Chocolate ice cream zealot
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posted December 08, 2007 10:45 PM |
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Meh . The whole thing is made difficult by the fact that theres people who would want to make money off selling bullets for 500 dollars less then the next person.
If it would have never been in the consitution it would have been perfect. Now that it is you either have to bite your lips and change a law that became inherent in society and wait for the turmoil forthcoming or just leave it be and face the long-term damage
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"Am i a demon? No im a priest of the light! THE BLOODY RED LIGHT"
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william
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LummoxLewis
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posted December 08, 2007 11:16 PM |
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And this is a reason why we shouldn't have guns.
I think if guns were taken out of the world, then many problems would be solved.
What every happened to just talking about it to another person, or maybe a street fight?
Sure street fights are not good, but at least there are plenty of people to help stop the fight, whereas with guns, all it takes is a press of the trigger and then you are dead.
Guns, what a waste of time.
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~Ticking away the moments that
make up a dull day, Fritter and
waste the hours in an off-hand
way~
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