Thursday, December 6, 2007

Omaha Mall Shooter Robert Hawkins ; Former Foster Child Had Been "Treated" For ADHD, Depression


TELL ME WHEN - WHEN - WHEN ARE THEY GOING TO STOP!!!!

WHEN ARE THEY GOING TO STOP DRUGGING OUR YOUTH?

WHEN???? ISN'T IT ALREADY TIME? NO ISN'T IT LONG PAST DUE?

Omaha Mall Shooter Robert Hawkins ; Former Foster Child Had Been "Treated" For ADHD, Depression!

Todd Landry, the director of Nebraska's child services, defended the role his agency has played in Hawkins' life. He laid out a string of specific services, including a group home, that helped care for Hawkins. He also put a price tag of $265,000 on the treatments and services rendered.

"This tragedy was not a failure of the system to provide appropriate quality of services for a youth that needed them," Landry said.

Police: Omaha Mall Shooter Stepped Off Elevator, Started Firing

Victims Included Six Department Store Workers, Two Customers at Omaha Mall

Warren says the video shows Hawkins entering the Von Maur department store in Omaha's Westroads Mall on the second level.

The video, which authorities said today they will release at the conclusion of the investigation, reportedly shows Hawkins taking the elevator to the third floor where the shooting began. He can be seen firing off shots as soon as he exits a third-floor elevator, Warren said.

Hawkins then walked to a customer service area, shot several people and then himself.

Before the shooting spree, Hawkins left a note in the home of his adopted family that said he was "sorry for everything" and would not be a burden on his family anymore. He also wrote, "Now I'll be famous." He apparently also left text and phone messages for several friends.

Before the shooting spree, Hawkins left a note in the home of his adopted family that said he was "sorry for everything" and would not be a burden on his family anymore. He also wrote, "Now I'll be famous." He apparently also left text and phone messages for several friends.

"The weapon that was used was an AK-47 assault weapon. We believe that Hawkins obtained the firearm from his stepfather. We believe that Robert Hawkins stole the firearm. It had been stored at his father's," Warren said. Authorities are not yet sure whether the weapon was legally owned.

The shooting had concluded by the time officers arrived on the scene, Warren said.

The Westroads mall was closed today.

Victims Are Identified

Today the victims were identified as Gary Sharp, a customer and resident of Lincoln, Neb.; John MacDonald, 66, a customer and resident of Council Bluffs, Iowa; Angie Shuster, 35, an employee; Maggie Webb, 24, an employee; Janet Jorgenson, 66, an employee; Diane Trent, 55, an employee; Gary Joy, 56, an employee; and Becky Flynn, 47, an employee.

Jeff Shaffart, who was shot in the arm by Hawkins, was shopping with his wife for a dress for their 2-year-old daughter. He told "Good Morning America" today that he thought balloons had popped or construction work was going on.

"It didn't dawn on me at the time I'd been shot," Shaffart said, adding that he didn't see the gunman. It wasn't until he saw blood on his fingers that he realized he had been hit. As he ducked for cover among other frightened shoppers, Shaffart said that he got separated from his wife. The sheriff arrived and essentially directed people out of the mall with a shotgun raised, reuniting the man with his wife.

'Lost Pound Puppy'

People who knew Hawkins say he was an "introverted troubled young man."

Though the first widely released picture of the gunman shows a mop-topped teen, Wednesday, he wore a military-style haircut and black outfit, witnesses said.

Hawkins, from Bellevue, Neb., was kicked out by his family about a year ago. He moved in with a friend's family, and Debora Maruca-Kovac and her husband welcomed him into their home and tried to help the teen.

"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 said in a TV interview.

Todd Landry, the director of Nebraska's child services, defended the role his agency has played in Hawkins' life. He laid out a string of specific services, including a group home, that helped care for Hawkins. He also put a price tag of $265,000 on the treatments and services rendered.

"This tragedy was not a failure of the system to provide appropriate quality of services for a youth that needed them," Landry said.

She also told the Omaha World-Herald that the night before the shooting, Hawkins and her sons showed her a rifle — the same type used in the shooting.

She said she didn't think much of it — the gun looked too old to work.

ABC News affiliate KETV in Omaha reported that police and federal agents executed a search warrant late Wednesday night at the house where Hawkins' biological mother reportedly lives.

Records in Sarpy and Washington counties show Hawkins had a felony drug conviction and several misdemeanor cases filed against him, including an arrest 11 days before the shooting for underage drinking. He was due again in court in two weeks.

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

'It's too Late'

"He said, 'It's too late,'" and hung up, Maruca-Kovac said. She says she then called Hawkins' mother.

Maruca-Kovac went to her job as a nurse at the Nebraska Medical Center, where victims of the shooting soon began to arrive.

The first 911 call came in at 3:42 p.m. ET.

Police snipers and SWAT teams were on the scene inside the busy shopping mall within six minutes, police said. The mall was placed on lockdown early Wednesday as shoppers were allowed out, but no one was permitted to enter the mall.

Employees and shoppers at the mall's Von Maur department store described hiding in offices and storerooms for about half an hour, but the shooting, which apparently were random, was already over and Hawkins lay dead on the third floor.

'Bang, Bang, Bang'

Roxanne Philp, an employee inside the Von Maur store on the third floor, told "GMA" that the last thing she remembered after the gunshots rang out was crawling on the floor toward a back exit.

"We have some gift-wrapping tables with the door on one end," Philp said. "I climbed inside of there and was trying to get the door closed tight so he couldn't see me."

Philp said she heard moaning from the other side of the door, but she just laid there waiting for the gunfire to stop, which it abruptly did. "You want to help the people that you love and the people you don't even know but want to help," she said. "It's just not the situation for it."

Charissa Totten, also working on the third floor of the store, immediately thought about helping guide shoppers toward the backrooms. "I kind of flagged them to the door," she told ABC News. "And then I actually stayed in the doorway because I was afraid there might be someone who hadn't made it into the backroom yet."

It's a holiday shopping nightmare that many in Omaha will have a difficult time shaking. Carol Pardon, who was shopping inside the department store when the rampage began, said it was agonizing to sit and watch as a fellow shopper nearby was hit.

'I Couldn't Help Him, I Couldn't Go to Him'

"I couldn't help him, I couldn't go to him," Pardon said. "That scene, watching his blood, you know, drift along the tiles of the Von Maur department store, that's a scene I'll never forget."

President Bush was in town for a fundraiser in Omaha, but left at about 3 p.m. ET, before the shooting, which took place around 4 p.m. ET.

Friday night members of the Omaha police bomb squad were called to the same mall when a grenade was found in the parking lot. Security guards at the mall found the explosive intact and the bomb squad safely retrieved the device.
The Von Maur store is part of a 22-store Midwestern chain. The sprawling, three-level mall has more than 135 stores and restaurants. It gets 14.5 million visitors every year, according to its 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.

Information from The Associated Press was used in this report.

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