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Mall killer 'not a violent person'
06/12/2007 14:39 - (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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Bellevue, Nebraska - Robert Hawkins had a history of depression but seemed to be doing better since moving in with a friend's family just over a year ago.
But about two weeks ago he broke up with his long-time girlfriend, and this week he was fired from his job at a fast-food restaurant, said a woman whose family took Hawkins in.
On Wednesday, the 19-year-old killed eight people and himself in a shooting rampage at an Omaha shopping mall, police said.
Surgical nurse Debora Maruca-Kovac, whose family took in Hawkins after her 17- and 19-year-old sons befriended him, said she saw victims of the mall shooting being brought in to the hospital where she works.
By then, she had already read a suicide note that Hawkins had left behind.
"I had a feeling it could be him," she said.
Kicked out of family house
She told The Associated Press that she and her husband let Hawkins stay with them after he was kicked out of his family's house but would not say why his family had kicked him out.
"He was depressed, and he had always been depressed," Maruca-Kovac said. "But he looked like he was getting better."
Hawkins, who earned a high school equivalency degree after dropping out of Papillion-La Vista High School, got a driver's licence after moving in with the Maruca-Kovacs and five months ago started working at a McDonald's restaurant near their home in a middle-class neighbourhood in Bellevue, Maruca-Kovac said.
Two employees of the McDonald's who were eating there on Wednesday said they had been told not to talk to anyone about Hawkins.
Hawkins was not on any medication for mental illness, but he had been treated in the past for depression and attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder, Maruca-Kovac said.
Gentle, loved animals
Though he had his troubles, Hawkins was gentle and loved animals, Maruca-Kovac said.
But he also had a drinking problem and would occasionally smoke marijuana in his bedroom, she said. Hawkins liked to listen to music and play video games - "normal teenager stuff", she said.
"He was a very helpful young man, but he was quiet," Maruca-Kovac said. "He didn't cause a lot of trouble. He tried to help out all the time. He was very thankful for everything. He wasn't a violent person at all."
Hawkins lived with several friends for a couple days at a time before landing at Maruca-Kovac's house last year, she said.
"He was like a lost pound puppy that nobody wanted," she said. "I felt sorry for him. I let him stay, and we tried to get him on his feet."
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