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Teen gunman 'was suicidal'
27/12/2007 13:12 - (SA)
Omaha - The teen gunman who fatally shot eight people in a mall earlier this month tried to kill himself by swallowing about 30 pills nearly two years earlier, according to court records released.
Months later, Robert Hawkins left state care, with his father saying the boy "will have to stand or fall on his own".
A judge on Wednesday released case worker reports, a psychological evaluation and a letter to the court from Hawkins' father, Ron Hawkins. The judge also released 11 transcripts of Hawkins' earlier court proceedings, adding detail to Hawkins' troubled teen years.
The judge ordered the information released after motions were filed by several news organisations.
'Overwhelmed by court hearings'
In one report, Hawkins, who had been in and out of the juvenile justice system since he was 14, told a social worker that he was feeling overwhelmed by court hearings and school.
He told the social worker, Angela Pick, that he wanted to die when he swallowed about 30 Tylenol pills in January 2006, she wrote in a report to Sarpy County Juvenile Court.
Her report said Hawkins "ended up in the emergency room" after taking the pills, but did not say how he got there. He was released to his father six days later and his demeanour "appeared to improve. His father and this worker observed him to be more positive," Pick wrote.
"He said that he never wanted to go through that again," she wrote.
Nearly two years later, on December 5, the 19-year-old Hawkins walked into a department store in Omaha's Westroads Mall and fatally shot eight people and himself with an AK-47 rifle.
Hawkins walked away from state care after four years, not because he was prepared to face society on his own but because he was no longer co-operating, according to case workers.
'Learn it the hard way'
"I think the only thing that will work is for him to learn it the hard way," Ron Hawkins wrote in an e-mail dated August 18, 2006, three days before Hawkins left the system.
"He will have to stand or fall on his own to learn these lessons about life," Ron Hawkins wrote. "It is beyond my ability and I have to release him to God, praying that He will make sure that nothing happens to him that cannot be undone."
Robert Hawkins shrugged off criticism of his drug use, acknowledged dealing drugs to fund his marijuana habit and was up and down with school, the newly released information showed.
Hawkins entered an outpatient drug program in May 2006, but was "unsuccessfully discharged" in July 2006 because of "negative behaviours and a failure to make a commitment to sobriety," according to a court report dated August 17, 2006.
The report recommended that the court's jurisdiction be terminated, and Robert Hawkins' therapist and his father agreed.
"Robbie has been in the court system for many years and has reached maximum benefit from what the department can provide," Pick wrote. "... He has continued to make some poor decisions but not any that are a safety concern at this time."
- AP
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