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Vigils for shooting victims
09/12/2007 11:43 - (SA)
Omaha - Visitations, wakes and vigils were set to begin Sunday for several victims of the deadliest mall shooting on record in the United States.
However, some people grieved on Saturday at the Westroads Mall, where three days earlier eight people were fatally shot by a suicidal teenager.
"I come out here almost every morning, and (today) it was kind of just an eerie feeling of, I don't know, quiet," said Marge Andrews, 49, who regularly walks the mall with a friend. She and her husband John, 51, came on Saturday to buy Christmas presents - sporting goods for their sons, volleyball clothes for their daughter.
"It doesn't feel like a Christmas feeling," John Andrews said.
The Von Maur department store, where 19-year-old Robert Hawkins opened fire with an AK-47 before taking his own life, remained closed.
A makeshift memorial had been assembled at its inside entrance. Wreaths were mounted on tripods just outside the doors and a note from management said the store would reopen soon. No date was given.
Police acknowledged there was extra security in the area, but said they could not discuss specifics. Mall security guards were unarmed.
Hawkins' family released a statement to The Associated Press through the Rev. Mark Miller of Faith Presbyterian Church in La Vista in which they said they hoped the community could heal. Services had not yet been arranged for Hawkins.
Funerals for several victims were scheduled for Monday.
Separate visitations for Von Maur department store employees Janet Jorgensen, 67, Gary Joy, 56, and Dianne Trent, 53, were scheduled for Sunday in Omaha, while another was planned that day for John McDonald, 65, in his hometown of Council Bluffs, Iowa.
Associated Press Writer Nelson Lampe in Omaha and Josh Funk and Nate Jenkins in Papillion contributed to this report.
- AP
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