"Now I'll be famous"

[Alpha]

OMAHA, Neb. - A man opened fire with a rifle at a busy department store Wednesday, killing eight people in an attack that made holiday shoppers run screaming through a mall and barricade themselves in dressing rooms.

 

The young shooter, who left a note predicting, "Now I'll be famous," wounded five others, two critically, then took his own life.

 

Witnesses said the gunman sprayed fired down on shoppers from a third-floor balcony of the Von Maur store using what police said was an SKS assault rifle they found at the scene.

 

"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 at the Westroads Mall, in a prosperous neighborhood on the city's west side. She said she hid in a dressing room with four other shoppers and an employee.

 

Police found the first victim on the second floor, then several more near a customer service station on the third floor.

 

The shooter, identified by police as 19-year-old Robert A. Hawkins, was found dead on the third floor with a self-inflicted gunshot wound.

 

Omaha Police Chief Thomas Warren said the shooting appeared to be random. He would not release the victims' identities and gave no motive for the attack.

 

Hawkins was kicked out by his family about a year ago and moved in with a friend's family in a house in a middle-class neighborhood in Bellevue, a suburb wedged between Offutt Air Force Base and the Missouri River, said Debora Maruca-Kovac, who along with her husband took in Hawkins, a friend of her sons.

 

"When he first came in the house, he was introverted, a troubled young man who was like a lost pound puppy that nobody wanted," Maruca-Kovac told The Associated Press.

 

Maruca-Kovac said Hawkins was fired from his job at a McDonald's this week and had recently broken up with a girlfriend. She said he phoned her about 1 p.m. on Wednesday, telling her that he had left a note for her in his bedroom. She tried to get him to explain.

 

"He said, 'It's too late,'" and hung up, she told CNN.

 

She told the AP she called Hawkins' mother, went to the Maruca-Kovacs' house and retrieved the suicide note, in which Hawkins wrote that he was "sorry for everything," would not be a burden on his family anymore and, most ominously, "Now I'll be famous."

 

Maruca-Kovac said she took the note to authorities and went to her job as a nurse at the Nebraska Medical Center.

 

Hours later, Maruca-Kovac said, she saw victims being brought in.

 

Police received a 911 call from someone inside the mall, and shots could be heard in the background, Sgt. Teresa Negron said. By the time officers arrived six minutes later, the shooting was over, she said.

To read the full article: http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20071206/ap_on_...s/mall_shooting

 

This happened earlier yesterday and it makes me sick. I'm tired of these retarded idiots who don't give a damn about humanity and decide to kill innocent civilians for "fame". The best cure for depression (which this kid supposedly had) is a lot of physical activity. Join a basketball team or soccer team, gather friends, and get your mind and body into equilibrium.

 

Back to the gun topic made earlier on the forums, this tragedy probably would have been prevented if guns were banned in the USA for civilians. Unfortunately, that's never going to happen.

 

I was watching on the news and they said the shooter was on the 3rd floor. When the first civilian on the second floor heard the gun shots, he screamed, "Call the cops, there is a shooter" (something like that). When the teenager / shooter saw the guy screaming, he popped a bullet in his head and killed him instantly.

 

Now the paranoia is back for Americans. The topic of discussion this week will be, "Are you safe shopping in malls this holiday season?" It will never end.

[Fatal Rose]

This is really sad.

[BlackKnight]

People should have the right to shoot up a shopping centre if they feel like it.

 

Sheesh get off his case.

[Fatal Rose]

Even my sense of humor is not THAT broad BK.

[BlackKnight]

Have some compassion. The guy just got dumped and lost his job.

 

Didn't know Fatal was so heartless.

[Inky]

I say this is a prime argument for more guns. if there were more concealed carry permits issued then there would be more law abiding people in that mall with a sidearm. maybe someone could have taken the killer out.

[Darken]

I wonder how he manage to enter the rifle with him in to the store ..... and no body notice him .

[Robert]

I say this is a prime argument for more guns. if there were more concealed carry permits issued then there would be more law abiding people in that mall with a sidearm. maybe someone could have taken the killer out.

 

And of course, everyone in the vicinity would have been shot as well.

 

Everyone should be armed to the teeth is typical thinking of the pro-gun lobby.

 

How many other mass shootings have there been in America this year? I've lost count already.

 

Without the ready availability of guns, it wouldn't have happened. Australia is proof of that.

[Inky]

criminals will get guns no matter what. anti gun laws only take guns out of the hands of the good guys.

[Wizard]

criminals will get guns no matter what. anti gun laws only take guns out of the hands of the good guys.

Correction, crazy people get guns all the time.

 

 

Also props to this kid, going crazy and crap. Wrong reason to do it though :/

[ken_cinder]

I'll say it again, you Americans shouldn't be allowed to own guns "just because". That admendment is for MILITIA, it has simply been twisted for the average Joe to be allowed to own a gun.

 

Until you get better laws in place and abolish this "Right to bear arms" crock of $hit, this kind of stuff will continue to happen at least once EVERY year.

 

Oh and garageink, putting guns into the hands of "the good guys" is where 70%+ criminals get their guns. Smarten the f**k up and stop thinking the typical redneck NRA member way.