Omaha’s Westroads Mall, a mall that this admin has enjoyed shopping at in the past, has been subjected to a rather nasty shooting at 1:42 in the afternoon on the 5th of December, 2007.
14 people have been reported as being shot, with 9 (including the shooter) being killed out of those 14.
The name of the shooter has been released: his name is Robert Hawkins.
This admin’s wife reports that she had been at the mall 5 minutes before the shooting started.
Von Maur, a department store similar to a Nordstrom’s, was where the gunfire erupted.
Shoppers and store workers report hearing anywhere from between 20 to 50 shots being fired as everyone scrambled for cover.
Some people hid in dressing rooms while calling 911 on their cell phones.
Some people hid in clothes racks as the sounds of shooting came closer.
The shooter has been described as a “big tall guy” who shot into the air.
Every police officer in Omaha, as well as officers in surrounding areas, responded to the alert.
Shortly after 3 in the afternoon, police went store to store in the mall looking for the shooter as well as more victims.
The shooter has been found dead from a self-inflicted gunshot wound on the third floor of the department store. The third floor in Von Maur features kid’s clothing and adult undergarments and the customer service giftwrap department - along with the women’s lounge.
The shooter is a 19-year-old male from neighboring Sarpy County who reportedly left a suicide note that stated “I’m going out in style.” The shooting was done with a rifle.
His vehicle was found in the mall parking lot.
The Nebraska Medical Center said it has three gunshot victims, all wounded but alive. Paul Vaultus, at NMC, said a 61-year-old man was shot in the chest and was in surgery before 3:45 p.m. A 34-year-old man had a wound and was in fair condition. A 55-year-old man had cuts to the face.
Creighton University Medical Center said it had three victims and two were fatalities. There was one man and one woman that had been confirmed as dead.
In what may be an unrelated event, a hand grenade was found in this same mall less than a week ago on the 30th of November.
We will of course, be watching this closely, wondering if anyone we know has been killed.
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Things always seem more prevalent when they’re close to home don’t they? His style was a bit macabre if you ask me, but hey I’m not the one who crossed the line in the name of being stylish am I?
Why do people do these sorts of things?
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I cannot imagine being one of the people who “does this sort of thing”, but I can well understand what extreme and torturous emotional pain this young man was in. Obviously, for whatever reason(s), he felt absolutely worthless and despised himself. Until we, as a society, give more compassionate attention and proper medical treatment to mentally disturbed children we will all pay a high price.
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This is the only country where ‘freedom of expression’ prevails. Anyone who is emotionally upset can go out get a Army style gun in nick of the time and ‘express themselves’ freely. I’m very sure that president ‘Bush’, his republican cronies and NRA president are very proud at this moment that freedom has prevailed. They are also proud that these so called ‘victims’ are only victims of someone’s ‘right’ to hold and use a gun, which is of HIGHER priority in America than the right to live of others.
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Holy crap. When I lived in Bellevue we used to go out to Westroads for the fancy mall stuff. How so very sad.
What are we doing as a society and parents that makes these people turn to shooting random people and then themselves. This type of thing plays over and over around the country. I’m not saying it’s “our” fault, I mean there is personal responsibility for these individuals. What as parents should we be doing so our kids don’t turn into these people, and how can we protect our children from them?
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i would love to start a discussion about American gun laws, but i guess there’s a time and place for everything and this hardly seems like the time. I’ll zip it untill a more suitable time, for now my hart goes out to all the famillies that have lost a loved one.
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This kid broke a law, stealing a gun from his stepfather.
What gun law would have helped? He could have done the same thing with a pistol or two.
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a gun law that forbids a normal citizen from owning a gun would be a great start, how would this kid be able to steal a gun from his stepfather if his stepfather doesn’t have one?
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what happened to the days before guns. we should go back to archery and spear throwing.
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WHAT THE F***
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My wife would always worry when I would drop our daughter off at Westroads. She was afraid of somebody shooting the place up. I always assured her something like that would never happen. I was wrong.
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