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| Report: Man shoots at least 5 in Omaha mall - |
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tulsad
 Posted:
Wed Dec 05, 2007 4:10 pm |
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Report: Man shoots at least 5 in Omaha mall
BREAKING NEWS
Mall temporarily locked down; 1 reportedly found with self-inflicted wound
OMAHA, Neb. - At least five people were shot Wednesday at a busy Omaha mall, local media reported, and police locked down the shopping center.
At least two people were carried out in stretchers, NBC affiliate WOWT-TV reported. Officials told the station that one person had a self-inflicted gunshot wound. It was unclear if it was the shooter.
At least five people were transported to a local hospital. Police told WOWT-TV that all the injured had been removed from the store.
A woman who answered the phone at an Old Navy store said earlier that 20 to 30 customers were huddled with employees in a back storeroom.
"All we know was people were running and screaming down the hallway by Von Maur saying there was a shooting, and then they locked us down," said the woman, who said her name was Heidi.
An employee of Von Maur department store said he heard a burst of five to six shots followed by 15 to 20 shots. Witnesses said the shooter appeared to be firing randomly.
A Westroads kiosk worker, who identified herself as Kathy, told KETV-TV that she heard three "pops." She said a Bath and Body Works manager approached her and told her to get out of the mall hallway, as there was a shooting, and the assailant had not been located.
Police were allowing some people to leave the mall, but no one was permitted to enter. Around 2:30 p.m., dozens of shoppers and employees left the mall with hands above their heads.
A description of the shooter, broadcast over scanners, was that it was a man wearing an Army-green vest and holding a rifle.
The shooting apparently happened as President Bush was leaving Omaha, where he attended a fundraiser for Republican Senate candidate Mike Johanns.
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/22116784/
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Sparkly Tree
Joined: 19 Aug 2006
Posts: 10139
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| woebedamned
Posted:
Wed Dec 05, 2007 4:22 pm |
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O/T up to 10 shot, 2 dead
In a store in Omaha NE
News still breaking
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Damn it All!!!!
Joined: 15 Aug 2006
Posts: 6309
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| tulsad
Posted:
Wed Dec 05, 2007 5:26 pm |
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UPDATE - ~ 4:15 CST
Gunman opens fire at Omaha mall, killing 9
Police: Suspect believed to have killed himself; 5 others hospitalized
updated 12 minutes ago
OMAHA, Neb. - A sniper opened fire at a busy Omaha mall, killing at least eight people, injuring at least five others and then killing himself, police officials said.
Witnesses told NBC affiliate WOWT-TV that the shooter pointed a gun over a third-floor railing at Westroads Mall and opened fire. He then fatally shot himself, the station reported. Police locked the mall down in the aftermath.
At least three were taken to local trauma centers. A 61-year-old man was in surgery in critical condition with a gunshot wound to the chest, WOWT-TV reported. Two other people were being treated at trauma centers for less serious injuries. There was no immediate word on their conditions.
A Von Maur employee said he heard a burst of five to six shots followed by 15 to 20 shots. Witnesses said the shooter appeared to be firing randomly.
Witnesses describe arrests
Two people were arrested at the mall's bus stop, WOWT-TV said. It was unclear if these arrests were related to the shootings.
KETV-TV reported that a viewer-submitted photo showed police surrounding a man in handcuffs fitting a description of the suspect. KETV-TV reported that the man in fatigues was found under a bus bench.
A description of the shooter, broadcast over scanners, was that he was wearing an Army-green vest and was holding a rifle. It was unclear if the man seen in the photo was the shooter, and police did not confirm the arrest.
‘They locked us down’
A woman who answered the phone at an Old Navy store said earlier that 20 to 30 customers were huddled with employees in a back storeroom.
"All we know was people were running and screaming down the hallway by Von Maur saying there was a shooting, and then they locked us down," said the woman, who said her name was Heidi.
A Westroads kiosk worker, who identified herself as Kathy, told KETV-TV that she heard three "pops." She said a Bath and Body Works manager approached her and told her to get out of the mall hallway, as there was a shooting, and the assailant had not been located.
Police were allowing some people to leave the mall, but no one was permitted to enter. Around 2:30 p.m., dozens of shoppers and employees left the mall with hands above their heads.
WOWT-TV reported that authorities removed what officials described as a live grenade from the mall’s parking lot Friday night. The circumstances of the case are under investigation. There was no indication that incident was related to Wednesday's shootings.
The shooting apparently happened as President Bush was leaving Omaha, where he attended a fundraiser for Republican Senate candidate Mike Johanns.
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/22116784/?GT1=10645
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Sparkly Tree
Joined: 19 Aug 2006
Posts: 10139
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| tulsad
Posted:
Wed Dec 05, 2007 5:27 pm |
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Woe and I both have threads about this - Fashionista??????? Help, please?
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Sparkly Tree
Joined: 19 Aug 2006
Posts: 10139
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| woebedamned
Posted:
Wed Dec 05, 2007 5:41 pm |
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9 dead, including the gunman. 5 injured--2 critical
LE found a live grenade in the parking lot Friday night
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Damn it All!!!!
Joined: 15 Aug 2006
Posts: 6309
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| tulsad
Posted:
Thu Dec 06, 2007 4:07 am |
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Downward spiral ends in gunfire, death
Gunman who killed 8, himself at Omaha mall had lost job, girlfriend, home
Wed., Dec. 5, 2007
OMAHA, Neb. - Robert Hawkins had been kicked out of his family’s house, had broken up with his girlfriend and was recently fired from his job at McDonald's, where he had been accused of stealing $17.
Hawkins called Debora Maruca-Kovac, the woman whose home he was living in, about 1 p.m. on Wednesday "very upset," telling her that he had left a note for her in his bedroom, she said.
She tried to get him to explain, but he hung up after telling her "I love you, and I’m sorry for any pain I’ve caused you," she told a local television station.
Maruca-Kovac found what the 20-year-old had left in the home: A suicide note, in which he said he was "going out in style," and that he'd never been anything in his life but after Wednesday he would be famous.
Armed with a rifle, Hawkins went to the sprawling upscale Westroads Mall, filled with shoppers three weeks before Christmas. The Omaha World-Herald reported that he had a military-style haircut, a black backpack and wore a camouflage vest.
Witnesses said Hawkins then fired down on people from a third-floor balcony of the Von Maur department store. Eight people were killed. Five were wounded, two critically. Hawkins then apparently turned the rifle on himself, ending his own life.
Chaotic scene
Police received the first 911 call at 1:42 p.m. from someone inside the mall, and shots could be heard in the background, police Sgt. Teresa Negron said.
"We sent every available officer in the city of Omaha," Negron said, adding that by the time officers arrived six minutes later, the shooting was over.
The gunman was found dead on the third floor with a self-inflicted gunshot wound, and his victims were discovered on the second and third floors, Negron said.
It was Nebraska’s deadliest shooting spree since January 1958, when Charles Starkweather killed 10 people in that state and another in Wyoming in one of the country’s most notorious murder cases.
Authorities gave no motive for the attack and said they did not know if Hawkins said anything during the rampage at the mall, in a middle-class neighborhood on the city’s west side.
Police closed the mall after the attack, and officials interviewed many witnesses in the facility.
Von Maur corporate headquarters in Davenport, Iowa, released a statement to the media. "We are deeply saddened by the horrific shooting at our Omaha store this afternoon," it said. "Our thoughts and prayers are with the victims of this tragic event, as well as their families. We are cooperating fully with the Omaha and Nebraska state police departments."
Woman: He looked like he was improving
Maruca-Kovac, a surgical nurse whose family took in Hawkins after her 17- and 19-year-old sons befriended him, said she saw the victims of the mall shooting being brought in to the hospital where she works.
By then, she had already read a suicide notes that Hawkins had left behind. “I had a feeling it could be him,” she said.
She said 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 started working at a McDonald’s restaurant about five months ago after moving in with Maruca-Kovac's family in a middle-class neighborhood in Bellevue, Maruca-Kovac said.
Two employees of the McDonald’s who were eating there 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.
Though he had his troubles, Hawkins was gentle and loved animals, Maruca-Kovac 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.”
Contents of suicide note
Maruca-Kovac said she found the handwritten note on the floor by his bed. She then called Hawkins’ mother, whom she said she knows only as “Molly.” The woman went to Maruca-Kovac’s house, retrieved the suicide note and took it to authorities.
In the note, Maruca-Kovac said, Hawkins said “how sorry he was for everything.” He wrote that he loved his mom and dad and other family members and said he wasn’t “going to be a burden anymore.”
At the top of the note was his “will,” which said that his green Jeep Cherokee was to go to his mother, and that “my friends can have whatever they want.” He ended the note by saying that now he would be famous.
“I wish we could have done something more for him. We were just trying to help him get on his feet,” Maruca-Kovac told WOWT-TV. “He was very troubled, very troubled — very confused, I imagine.”
Witnesses describe attack
At the mall during the attack, terrified shoppers and workers ran, some of them barricading themselves in dressing rooms.
"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 4-year-old daughter. She said she hid in a dressing room with four other shoppers and an employee.
"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."
Mickey Vickory, who worked at Von Maur's third-floor service department, said she heard the shots.
She and her co-workers and customers went into a back closet behind the wrapping room to hide, then emerged about a half-hour later when police shouted to come out with their hands up. As police took them to another part of the mall for safety, they saw the victims.
"We saw the bodies and we saw the blood," she said.
Shortly after the shooting, a group of shoppers came out of the building with their hands raised. Some were still holding shopping bags.
Police told people to park their cars at businesses across from the mall and to wait for their loved ones, then directed them to an Omaha hotel to await information.
Grenade found last week
WOWT-TV reported that authorities removed what officials described as a live grenade from the mall’s parking lot Friday night. The circumstances of the case are under investigation. There was no indication that incident was related to Wednesday's shootings.
The shooting happened as President Bush was leaving Omaha, where he attended a fundraiser for Republican Senate candidate Mike Johanns.
"Having just visited with so many members of the community in Omaha today, the president is confident that they will pull together to comfort one another," White House press secretary Dana Perino said.
The sprawling, three-level mall has more than 135 stores and restaurants, according to the Web site for General Growth Properties, the manager of the mall. It gets 14.5 million visitors every year, according to the Web site.
It was the second mass shooting at a mall this year. In February, nine people were shot, five of them fatally, at Trolley Square mall in Salt Lake City. The gunman, 18-year-old Sulejman Talovic, was shot and killed by police.
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/22116784/
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Sparkly Tree
Joined: 19 Aug 2006
Posts: 10139
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| woebedamned
Posted:
Thu Dec 06, 2007 11:09 am |
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I heard Bo Dietle saying the mall is somewhat at fault for not providing adequate security. Look for lawsuits.
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Damn it All!!!!
Joined: 15 Aug 2006
Posts: 6309
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