A gunman killed eight people and wounded five others Wednesday at the popular Westroads Mall in Omaha, Nebraska, before apparently turning the gun on himself, police said.
"We do not believe that we have any other shooter," said Sgt. Teresa Negron.
"The person we believe to be the shooter has died of a self-inflicted gunshot wound."
Negron said it was not yet known whether the gunman addressed anyone before opening fire, because police were still interviewing witnesses.
Seven people died at the scene, and two -- a man and a woman -- died after reaching Creighton University Medical Center.
Three of the wounded are in critical condition.
The shootings began just before 2 p.m. at the Von Maur store inside the shopping complex.
The gunman had a rifle and most of the victims were shot inside the store, Negron said.
Police were still trying to identify the dead and were looking for a vehicle the gunman may have used to come to the mall.
After the shootings began, shoppers and employees streamed out of the building with their hands up.
Some described hiding in clothes racks, dressing rooms and bathrooms after hearing the shots.
"I was standing around getting ready to go back to work and all of a sudden I heard this bang, bang, bang -- it sounded like someone shooting fireworks," a witness told CNN affiliate KETV. "I ran to get away from whatever was happening."
Shoppers described scenes of horror as they fled the mall.
"We heard about 35, 40 shots, and on our way our we did see someone down by the escalator, bleeding," Jennifer Cramer told KETV.
Another witness said people started running frantically from the Von Maur area saying there was a shooting.
"I heard three loud pops," said mall employee Charissa Tatoon. "Immediately after that, there was a series of maybe 20 to 25 more shots up on the third floor." She said she saw a man shot on the second floor and "at least four or five" people brought out on gurneys.
As news of the shooting spread, people gathered outside the mall, checking on loved ones who were inside.
The shopping center will be closed until at least Thursday, police said.
source (http://www.cnn.com/2007/US/12/05/mall.shooting/index.html)
:icon_dontgetit:
Saw this on the news when I got home. It's so fucked up. If you wanna take yourself out, hey, be my guest. But what's the point of killing innocent people before hand?
njohnson747 12-06-07, 01:30 AM As a former Von Maur employee (Men's Furnishings / Suits Dept) I've been to that Westroads store on several occasions. I'm really hurt to see this horror happened anywhere let alone the most friendly, courteous, caring retail store in America. As it happens Von Maur does gift wrapping (and shipping) absolutely for free during the holidays that's why you see that area of the store mentioned prominently in some news reports. There are always a lot of people crowded back in that wing this time of year and they have extra help on hand as well. If there is any place that looks like a perfectly beautiful spot to destroy lives during the Holiday Season I suppose it is Von Maur. This is awful.
Jantheman 12-06-07, 01:50 AM Why? Why would some dumbass kill so many innocent people, then do such a chicken shit thing like kill himself. Thin the herd, by killing one's self is fine with me. Just don't take me with you. Our Von Maur is great place to shop, on par with Nordstrom's.
skywalker 12-06-07, 07:25 AM When is all this shit gonna stop????
tamsnod27 12-06-07, 02:59 PM When people start taking these assholes out with their own weapons, obviously...there has always been crazy bastards, difference was, they knew that people would kill their crazy asses if they tried this back in the day...did I mention I got a deer this year at 200 yards with my 30.06?
njohnson747 12-06-07, 06:17 PM (This is the piece of shit that tore up Von Maur in Omaha yesterday)
http://img510.imageshack.us/img510/2746/mallshootingsffstandaloai6.jpg (http://imageshack.us)
Bodies removed after mall massacre
OMAHA, Neb. | Police removed bodies from an Omaha shopping mall store early today as the investigation continued into a shooting that left nine people dead Wednesday afternoon.
Authorities had not released the names of the victims, except the shooter, Robert A. Hawkins, 19, of Bellevue, Neb., just south of Omaha.
Hawkins opened fire at the Von Maur department store at Westroads Mall about 2 p.m. Wednesday, authorities said. By the time police arrived less than 15 minutes later, five women, three men and the shooter were dead.
A woman who worked as a gift-wrapper at the store said this morning that many of the shooting victims worked there, although that had not been verified by authorities.
More details on the shooting will be released at a 9:30 a.m. news conference in the mayor’s office. An update on five people injured in the shooting is planned for 10 a.m. and a prayer service is slated for 12:30 p.m. at an Omaha church.
Police kept the Von Maur store blocked off early this morning and the mall was expected to be closed all day, at the height of the holiday shopping season.
Some people who were at Von Maur on Wednesday returned to the mall area early today. One woman, Jennifer Kramer, said she was at Von Maur with her mother to buy a coat for Kramer’s 35th birthday.
“I think I hear gunshots,” Kramer recalled telling her mother, who disagreed. “Those are not gunshots,” her mother insisted.
When they were escorted by police out of the store, they saw a male victim lying at the bottom of an escalator.
Kramer told her story matter-of-factly this morning but then couldn’t control her emotions.
“I’m torn. I walked out of there alive and nine people didn’t,” Kramer said, tears brimming in her eyes. “I told my friend I made it to 35 by a wish and a prayer, I guess literally.”
Hawkins left a suicide note that said, “Now I’ll be famous,” said Debora Maruca-Kovac, who owned the house where he lived.
Witnesses said the gunman fired down on shoppers from a third-floor balcony of the Von Maur store. Victims were discovered on the second and third floors, police said.
One witness said she was on the second floor near the escalator and looked up toward the commotion. She saw a man with a gun lean over a rail from the third floor, and a man standing right next to her was shot in the head.
Police received a 911 call from someone inside the mall at 1:42 p.m., and shots could be heard in the background, said Sgt. Teresa Negron, a police spokeswoman. By the time officers arrived six minutes later, the shooting was over, she said.
Dozens of Omaha police, county sheriff’s deputies and FBI agents sealed off and closed the mall, which is in a prosperous neighborhood on the city’s west side.
At 2:12 p.m., officers located the apparent shooter in the customer service area, dead of a gunshot wound.
Omaha Police Chief Thomas Warren said at a press conference Wednesday night that those killed, who were not identified, included five females and three males, plus the gunman.
“It appears this incident lasted a very few minutes,” Warren said. “Shooting had concluded when officers arrived on the scene.”
He said the shooting was confined to the Von Maur store and that officers found the first victim on the second floor. He said the victims apparently were shot at random and without provocation.
The gunman was described as having a military-style haircut, carrying an SKS assault rifle and wearing a camouflage vest and a black backpack.
Warren confirmed that Hawkins, 19, was the shooter.
Hawkins was a student at Papillion-La Vista High School but withdrew in March 2006, a district spokeswoman said.
After his family kicked him out of their home, Hawkins lived for a little more than a year with a friend’s family in a house in a middle-class Bellevue neighborhood, said Debora Maruca-Kovac, who owns the home.
“When he first came in the house, he was introverted, a troubled young man who was like lost pound puppy that nobody wanted,” she said.
Hawkins was fired from his job at a nearby McDonald’s this week and had recently broken up with a girlfriend, Maruca-Kovac said.
She said he phoned her about 1 p.m. Wednesday, telling her that he had left a note for her in his bedroom, and she tried to get him to explain.
Maruca-Kovac said she found the suicide note and called Hawkins’ mother, who went to the Maruca-Kovac house. In the note, Hawkins said he would not be a burden anymore and that he was “sorry for everything.”
Maruca-Kovac said she took the note to authorities and went to her job as a nurse at the Nebraska Medical Center, where, hours later, she saw victims being brought in.
After the shooting, employees and shoppers, some still with shopping bags, were ushered out of the mall by police.
Mickey Vickory, who worked at Von Maur’s third-floor service department, heard shots and hid with co-workers and customers in a back closet behind the wrapping room. 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.
Police and rescue personnel set up a meeting point at a nearby hotel to meet with family members of the victims.
The five wounded, including a 61-year-old man shot in the chest, were being treated at the Creighton University and University of Nebraska medical centers. Two were in critical condition.
The three-level mall has more than 135 stores and restaurants. It gets 14.5 million visitors every year, according to its Web site.
The Von Maur store is part of a 22-store Midwestern chain.
source (http://www.kansascity.com/637/story/392112.html)
http://img145.imageshack.us/img145/5623/462mallshootingah1058j0lr8.jpg (http://imageshack.us)
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