Nebraska Shooting

On December 5th, 2007 gunshots rang through-out the halls of Westroads Mall in Omaha, Nebraska. Robert Hawkins, a 19-year old high school drop out snuck a rifle into Von Maur, took and elevator to the third floor, then openly fired up to 45 shots. He killed nine people, including himself.

He was suspected to have mental issues, and left behind a suicide note that read "I'm a piece of sh*t, but I'm going to be famous now." Hawkins was staying with a family friend, who was trying to turn his life around. He had recently lost his job at a local McDonalds for being accused of stealing $17, and his girlfriend.

The woman who he was staying with said that Robert had shown her the rifle the night before (Tues. Dec. 4th), however she didn't act upon it, thinking it was too old to be functional. She was in the car when she heard about the shooting on her radio and told the newspaper, "I thought 'Oh, my God, I hope this isn't Robbie". As most locals, including myself, know Westroads was a safe place, and an incident like this was highly unexpected.

The police were at the mall within six minutes of the first fire, and immediately confirmed five dead.

Hawkins is said to have gotten the rifle from his step-father, the police are still investigating on whether or not it was a legal ownership. The state of Nebraska is in grievance, and best wishes go out to all of you who knew of someone who was involved or even near this tragedy.

December 5th, 2007 was named the worst single day of violence in the history of the state of Nebraska.