Despite suicide note, questions left unanswered in Omaha mall shooting
Victims recount scary situation
8:07 a.m. Thursday, December 6, 2007
Omaha, Neb. — Omaha police say the deadly rampage took only minutes. But for those in the store, it must have felt like hours.
"I was hiding in the clothes rack in the back of the men's department, and I heard 35 to 40 shots," said shopper Jennifer Cramer.
"Someone said, it's a gunshot. We dove behind the cosmetic counter, waited for police to get us out," said shopper Mary Braunger.
Before police arrived, nine people were killed, including the shooter who turned the gun on himself. Five others were wounded, including Jeff Schaffart.
"We did a tourniquet and gauze on my two gunshot wounds, and finally after what seemed like an eternity, a guy came in and yelled 'sheriff,'" Schaffart said.
Police say they believe the lone suspect was 19-year-old Robert A. Hawkins. He was wearing camouflage gear and used an assault rifle.
He was reportedly depressed after a break up with a girlfriend.
Just before the shooting started, he called a friend's mother.
"We tried to ask him what was going on, and he conveyed to use that he just got fired from his job. So, we told him to come home, that we wanted to talk about it and he said he was too late," said Debora Maruca-Kovac, who owns the home where Hawkins was staying.
Hawkins left a note that reportedly said he did not want to burden his family and that now he'd be famous.
But still police say, there remain many questions. First and foremost, why?
"It would be speculation to try to figure out what the motive may have been. Uh, certainly whenever you have an incident of this nature, it may be impossible to come up with an explanation," Omaha Police Chief Thomas Warren said.
The gunman's mother is said to have turned the note over to police, and in it Hawkins also said he wanted to, "go out in style."
That style has left this usually peaceful town in pain this holiday season.
Comments
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Dec. 6, 2007 at 4:02 p.m. (Suggest removal)parkay (anonymous)
Omaha’s Westroads Mall posts signs banning permit holders from legally carrying guns on their property, the same as Trolley Square Mall in Utah, where another multiple shooting occurred in February.
Signs don’t stop shooting spree killers. Guns do.
The SKS semi-automatic rifle is not defined as an assault rifle. Differing news reports are referring to the Omaha shooter’s weapon, likely stolen from his stepfather, as an SKS rifle or an AK-47 rifle or an old Russian military rifle. Is this the most accuracy the news media is capable of?
The Russian SKS and the AK-47 are not the same. The AK-47 was a replacement for the SKS rifle. The shooter, Robert Hawkins, 19, with a record as a depressed junkie and boozer, was able to fire a large number of shots and kill 8 people in a matter of a few minutes, likely using semi-automatic fire, one shot per trigger pull, by using two 30-round magazines taped together for rapid reloading.
The AK-47 automatic rifle is an assault rifle. The SKS semi-automatic carbine rifle is not.
The real weapon here was created by people who let a troubled young man destroy his life with illegal booze and drugs, and failed to insist on effective treatment for his depression.
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