Free Republic

There he stood in the Tyrone Square Mall parking lot, surrounded by three police cruisers and mall security. Police had searched and interrogated him. All the while, DiSalvo said, shoppers gawked, perhaps wondering whom he had killed. The 57-year-old said he was guilty of one thing: forgetfulness. He lost his 1991 Grand Marquis in a sea of 6,000 parked cars.

Omaha, Nebraska -- The day after my hometown was rocked by the senseless murder of eight innocent people and the wounding of five others in a local shopping mall, ‘Today Show’ co-host Meredith Vieira asked this obtuse question of two of the shooter’s friends: “Do you think your friend was a victim?” Therein lies the problem with our society’s view of guns and gun violence. The rights of victims are forgotten while murderers are called victims. Poor Robbie Hawkins. Apparently 265,000 of our hard-earned tax dollars spent on this “victim” over the last several years by our Health and Human...

OMAHA, Neb. — The mother of the teenage gunman who killed eight people at a busy shopping mall last week apologized Thursday for her son's crime and said she did her best raising him. "I have been absolutely devastated," Maribel Rodriguez told The Associated Press. "The most difficult part is giving all of my best efforts to convey to all these beautiful people that I truly am sorry." Her son, 19-year-old Robert Hawkins, fired more than 30 rounds inside a mall department store Dec. 5, striking 11 people. Eight of them died, and he killed himself. Families held funerals and...

At issue: A woman using a handgun to stop a killer in a “soft target,” a church. Our view: The case shows why Michigan school staff need an option for training and concealed carry, not “gun-free zones.” Another month has brought more shooting sprees in what commonly are “gun-free zones.” Four died in two separate shootings Sunday in Colorado. Eight were murdered last Wednesday in an Omaha, Neb., shopping mall. Seven students were slain recently in Finland. That followed a Cleveland school shooting in October. Only in the latest attack did an adult have a right to a gun to...

NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) -- After getting off to a fast start last month, holiday sales at some of the nation's largest retailers have slowed to an excruciatingly slow pace and mall traffic has dropped dramatically. The results, coming two weeks before Christmas, jeopardize an already weak holiday sales period. Chain-store sales rose a mere 0.2 percent for the week ended Dec. 8, following a disappointing 2 percent sales decline in the prior week, according to a report released Tuesday by the International Council of Shopping Centers. "Consumers continue to be slow in finishing their holiday shopping," said Michael Niemira, the...

The following comments are from an actual witness to the Omaha shooting, and a Police Officer who responded. Other than minor edits for spelling and clarity, we have not altered their comments, since, though somewhat disjointed, they convey the surreal and disorienting reality of being involved in a public shooting rampage.

(2007-12-07) — When 19-year-old Robert Hawkins entered the Westroads Mall in Omaha, Nebraska, carrying an AK-47 assault rifle wrapped in a sweater, he intended to become famous by shooting as many people as possible and then turning the gun on himself.The mentally-troubled teen left a suicide note, and a trail of evidence on his computer and elsewhere that he knew the police would spend months investigating. He had done everything possible to ensure that his name would be mentioned along with other mass killers at Virginia Tech, Columbine High School and the like.He knew that the Westroads Mall was a...

OMAHA, Neb. - The teenage gunman who went on a shooting rampage in a department store may have smuggled an assault rifle into the mall underneath clothing, police said Thursday. Police Chief Thomas Warren said the young man "appeared to be concealing something balled up in a hooded sweat shirt" he was carrying, according to a surveillance video. The teen entered the store Wednesday using an elevator, and moments later, gunfire pierced through the notes of Christmas music at the Westroads Mall's Von Maur department store. People huddled in dressing rooms and barricaded themselves in offices as 19-year-old Robert A....

As some of you know, I am from Omaha. Just my opinion, for what it’s worth, but I’m watching the reports on TV and Radio, both locally (here in Omaha) and nationally and I’m getting ticked off .. I have to speak out. I've been listening to people who knew this kid, on a local radio station, talking about threats he has made. There was one classmate who claims he threatened to kill her and burn down her house. Then there are the friends from his clique who are defending him. One even supposedly threatened to kill another student who...

OMAHA, Neb., Dec 5 (Reuters) - A 19-year-old man killed eight people and then himself with an assault rifle at a busy mall in Omaha on Wednesday, sending terrified workers and Christmas shoppers scrambling for cover. "Now I will be famous," the gunman wrote in a suicide note, his landlady told CNN after finding a three-part document that she said included his will. Police declined to discuss the contents of the note. Five people were wounded, two of them critically, in the early afternoon rampage in the Midwestern U.S. city. Most of the victims at the upscale Westroads Mall were...

OMAHA, Neb. -- The shooter at Westroads Mall was identified as Robert A. Hawkins of Bellevue, according to the Sarpy County Sheriff's Department, and a suicide note said he was going to be famous. Hawkins, 19, had been arrested on a couple of misdemeanors in November and was due in court this month. One charge included minor in possession of alcohol. He was arrested on Nov. 24. He was due in court for an arraignment on Dec. 19. Sarpy County deputies said they are getting a warrant to search Hawkins' home in the Quail Creek neighborhood in Bellevue. The woman...

Omaha, NE - Nine people are confirmed dead following the shooting at Westroads Mall this afternoon. Action 3 News has learned at least 5 other people were hurt. Two are in critical condition at area hospitals. 34-year-old Omaha attorney, Jeff Schaffert was shot in the arm. He is in fair condition at the Nebraska Medical Center. A 55-year-old man has already been released from the hospital. Police believe one of the dead is the shooter. Sergeant Teresa Negron says he died of a self-inflicted gunshot wound. Police are asking everyone to stay away from the area. The neighborhoods around the...

Have not seen this posted. At least 5 shot, possibly 2 dead at Westroads Mall in Omaha, NE in past 2 hours. My office has view of mall. It has been a scene, MANY police cars, helicopter, ambulances. Pray for the victims and their loves ones

An elderly man was found near an escalator in the store, and police said a young black man was being sought as the suspected shooter. Early indications were that as many as five people may be injured. Colby Barak told KETV NewsWatch 7 that she was on lockdown inside Westroads Mall. She said she was doing Christmas shopping at Younkers, and an announcement was made that no one would be allowed to leave. Just before 2 p.m., Barrett said, another announcement was made that shoppers could leave but would not be allowed back in. Dozens of police and sheriff's cars...

Calculating the Risks in Pakistan A small group of U.S. military experts and intelligence officials convened in Washington for a classified war game last year, exploring strategies for securing Pakistan's nuclear arsenal if the country's political institutions and military safeguards began to fall apart. The secret exercise — conducted without official sponsorship from any government agency, apparently due to the sensitivity of its subject — was one of several such games the U.S. government has conducted in recent years examining various options and scenarios for Pakistan's nuclear weapons: How many troops might be required for a military intervention in...

<p>Greensport Mall, Houston. Being reported on Fox News right now.</p>

An FBI report warned al Qaeda may be planning to strike shopping malls in Chicago and Los Angeles during the Christmas season, but a bureau official said on Thursday there was no information it was a credible threat. ABC News first disclosed portions of the report that was based on intelligence received by the FBI in late September. The report said al Qaeda hoped to disrupt the U.S. economy and had been planning the attack for the past two years. The document, called an intelligence information report, was intended for law enforcement and the intelligence community, FBI spokesman Richard Kolko...

U.S. to Offer Turkey Help on PKK The U.S. is to offer Turkey a package of measures to dissuade Ankara from mounting a large-scale military incursion into Iraq to attack PKK Kurdish guerrillas, who have killed scores of Turkish soldiers in recent weeks. Ahead of a meeting in Washington on Monday between President George W. Bush and Recep Tayyip Erdogan, Turkey’s prime minister, U.S. officials said Ankara would have to get concrete American help to combat the PKK, which has bases in northern Iraq from where it frequently launches attacks into Turkey. “Erdogan has to go back with the...

AN explosion apparently caused by a fuel tank ripped through an upmarket shopping mall in the main Philippine financial district of Makati in the capital Manila today. Panicked shoppers ran out of the Glorietta mall as smoke billowed out of the building and police rushed in to investigate, witnesses said. "Our initial report is that it was an accidental explosion of LPG (liquefied petroleum gas). We are still trying to determine if there are any casualties,''.

HAYWARD -- Hayward police closed Southland Mall late Saturday afternoon after about 200 teenagers and young adults stormed the popular shopping center and began ransacking stores. The young people poured out of bleachers, set up in the parking lot outside Macy's, after a basketball game known as streetball ended. Police Lt. Mark Koller said clothes were pulled off hangers and advertising displays overturned. Employees and shoppers saw the intruders kick merchandise and mall kiosks as they made their way past Mervyn's and J.C. Penney stores. Thousands of shoppers left the mall by car and on foot as more than 60...