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A gunman killed eight people at a mall in Omaha this afternoon and then killed himself, setting off bedlam and panic among holiday shoppers, the police said.
“The person who we believe to be the shooter has died from self-inflicted gunshot wounds,” Sgt. Teresa Negron of the Omaha Police Department said at a televised news briefing late this afternoon after the police had secured the area.
“We have been able to clear the mall,” she said. “We don’t believe we have any other shooters.”
The police said that at least five other people had been injured in the shootings.
Sergeant Negron said the shooter was armed with a rifle. She did not give his identity during the news briefing, but KETV television of Omaha, citing Sarpy County Sheriff’s Department, later identified gunman as Robert A. Hawkins, 19, of Bellevue, Neb.
“We are still conducting the investigation,” Sergeant Negron said, adding that the city’s mayor, who was out of town, was on his way back to Omaha.
Sergeant Negron said the police received a 911 call from someone inside the Westroads Mall on the west side of Omaha, and shots could be heard in the background. The first police officers arrived at the mall six minutes after the first call, she said, but by then the shootings were over.
KETV reported that the gunman left a suicide note that was found at his home by relatives. The television station, quoting a law enforcement official who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak publicly about the shooting, said the note indicated that the gunman wanted to “go out in style.”
The shootings broke the usually banal routine of holiday shopping. The gunman was said by some witnesses to have fired about 20 shots into a crowd at the Von Maur department store. Some customers and workers ran screaming from the mall, while others dived into dressing rooms to hide from the shooter.
“Can anybody make sense out of this?” one shopper tearfully told MSNBC after running out of the mall.
“There was breaking glass,” one woman told KETV in Omaha, saying she hid under a clothes rack when the shooting started. “It was horrible, just horrible.”
Another witness said she heard someone shout, “It’s a gunman, run!” and saw bullet casings cascading off the mall balcony, The Associated Press reported.
Witnesses reported hearing as many as two dozen gunshots, and some told local television stations that they saw people shot in the head.
Jeffrey Peck, manager of a leather goods store, said mall workers ran up to tell him to close up his store, The A.P. said.
“I told the customer to go into the back room, and as I was shutting the gate, I heard two gunshots ring out.”
Shoppers and store workers were trapped inside the mall, which has roughly 135 stores, and huddled behind locked doors or inside dressing rooms. Others streamed out of mall exits with their hands raised.
President Bush was in Omaha this morning to deliver a speech, but he had left the city by the time the shootings took place.
Officials of Von Maur Inc., a Midwestern department store chain, offered its condolences to victims in a statement after the shooting, saying, “We are deeply saddened by the horrific shooting at our Omaha store this afternoon.”
“The person who we believe to be the shooter has died from self-inflicted gunshot wounds,” Sgt. Teresa Negron of the Omaha Police Department said at a televised news briefing late this afternoon after the police had secured the area.
“We have been able to clear the mall,” she said. “We don’t believe we have any other shooters.”
The police said that at least five other people had been injured in the shootings.
Sergeant Negron said the shooter was armed with a rifle. She did not give his identity during the news briefing, but KETV television of Omaha, citing Sarpy County Sheriff’s Department, later identified gunman as Robert A. Hawkins, 19, of Bellevue, Neb.
“We are still conducting the investigation,” Sergeant Negron said, adding that the city’s mayor, who was out of town, was on his way back to Omaha.
Sergeant Negron said the police received a 911 call from someone inside the Westroads Mall on the west side of Omaha, and shots could be heard in the background. The first police officers arrived at the mall six minutes after the first call, she said, but by then the shootings were over.
KETV reported that the gunman left a suicide note that was found at his home by relatives. The television station, quoting a law enforcement official who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak publicly about the shooting, said the note indicated that the gunman wanted to “go out in style.”
The shootings broke the usually banal routine of holiday shopping. The gunman was said by some witnesses to have fired about 20 shots into a crowd at the Von Maur department store. Some customers and workers ran screaming from the mall, while others dived into dressing rooms to hide from the shooter.
“Can anybody make sense out of this?” one shopper tearfully told MSNBC after running out of the mall.
“There was breaking glass,” one woman told KETV in Omaha, saying she hid under a clothes rack when the shooting started. “It was horrible, just horrible.”
Another witness said she heard someone shout, “It’s a gunman, run!” and saw bullet casings cascading off the mall balcony, The Associated Press reported.
Witnesses reported hearing as many as two dozen gunshots, and some told local television stations that they saw people shot in the head.
Jeffrey Peck, manager of a leather goods store, said mall workers ran up to tell him to close up his store, The A.P. said.
“I told the customer to go into the back room, and as I was shutting the gate, I heard two gunshots ring out.”
Shoppers and store workers were trapped inside the mall, which has roughly 135 stores, and huddled behind locked doors or inside dressing rooms. Others streamed out of mall exits with their hands raised.
President Bush was in Omaha this morning to deliver a speech, but he had left the city by the time the shootings took place.
Officials of Von Maur Inc., a Midwestern department store chain, offered its condolences to victims in a statement after the shooting, saying, “We are deeply saddened by the horrific shooting at our Omaha store this afternoon.”
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