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Man opens fire in mall, kills 8
06/12/2007 07:27 - (SA)
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| Shoppers stand outside the Von Maur store in Nebraska after a gunman opened fire inside, killing eight people. (Dave Weaver, AP) |
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Omaha, Nebraska - A man opened fire with a rifle at a busy department store in the Midwest on 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 four-year-old daughter at the Westroads Mall, in a prosperous neighbourhood 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.
'Like a lost puppy that nobody wanted'
The shooter, identified by police as 20-year-old Robert A Hawkins, was found dead on the third floor with a self-inflicted gunshot wound, and his victims were discovered on the second and third floors.
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 neighbourhood in Bellevue, a suburb wedged between Offutt Air Force Base and the Missouri River, said Debora Maruca-Kovac, a nurse 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 said.
Maruca-Kovac said Hawkins was fired from his job at a McDonald's this week and had recently broken up with a girlfriend. She said he phoned her at about 13:00 on Wednesday, telling her that he had left a note for her in his bedroom. She tried to get him to explain, but he hung up, she said.
She called Hawkins's mother, went to the Maruca-Kovac's house, retrieved the suicide note - in which Hawkins wrote that he was "sorry for everything", would not be a burden on his family anymore and "now I'll be famous", she said - took it to authorities and went to work.
Hours later, Maruca-Kovac said, she saw victims being brought in to the Nebraska Medical Centre, where she works.
Over in six minutes
Police received a 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.
"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."
- AP
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