No way to predict deadly Omaha mall shooting: officials

Officers had little time to prevent a teenager armed with an assault rifle from opening fire inside a crowded mall in Omaha, Neb., killing eight people before turning the gun on himself, the city's police chief said Thursday.

The first officers arrived at the Westroads mall just six minutes after a dispatcher received a 911 call on Wednesday afternoon reporting shots being fired at the Von Maur department store, Omaha police Chief Thomas Warren told reporters at a news conference.

"There doesn't appear there was an opportunity for intervention," Warren said."Officers are trained to engage an active shooter, but it appears the shots had concluded by the time officers arrived."

The victims whose ages ranged from 24 to 66 were identified as six employees and two customers.

The customers killed included Gary Scharf of Lincoln, Neb.,and John McDonald of Council Bluffs, Iowa, police said. The employees killed, all from Omaha,were Angie Schuster, Maggie Webb, Janet Jorgensen, Diane Trent, Gary Joy and Beverly Flynn.

Five other people were injured and two of the victimsremain in critical condition with stable vital signs, Warren added.

Video may show gunman concealing weapon

Surveillance video footage shows the gunman concealing something balled up in a hooded sweatshirt, Warren said. It is unclear whether the sweatshirt concealed the SKS assault rifle, similar in design and calibre to an AK-47, which was recovered at the scene.

Warren said it appeared the gunman obtained the weapon from his stepfather, although checks on whether it was a legally owned firearm were still being be made.

Police were stillinvestigating the chain of events leading to the shooting, including "various pieces of correspondences" by the gunman,such asphone and text messages to his mother and ex-girlfriend as well as the discovery of a suicide note by his landlady, Warren added.

"Certainly, you can't anticipate someone engaging in this type of shooting rampage," he said. "But if there's any justification or any explanation, we're going to try to obtain that information."

Omaha Mayor Mike Fahey said he didn't think "there's any way to predict an individual like this."

Security at the mall is usually "beefed up" during the holiday shopping season, but the guards are not armed, Warren said.

It didn't appear the gunman communicated with the victims or targeted them deliberately, he added.

'We got out of there as fast as we could'

Shoppers and employees ran for their lives when the shooting began, while others barricaded themselves in dressing rooms and prayed.

Witness Shawn Vidlak said the shots sounded like a nail gun. At first he thought it was noise from construction work at the mall.

"People started screaming about gunshots," Vidlak said. "I grabbed my wife and kids. We got out of there as fast as we could."

The store's co-chair, Charles Von Maur, said grief counsellorsare available to all staff and customers and their families.

"We continue to pray for the victims and their families who have suffered in this unspeakable tragedy," he said at the news conference.

Police identified the gunman as Robert A. Hawkins, 19, of Bellevue, Neb.

Hawkins was kicked out by his family about a year ago, said Debora Maruca-Kovac, who allowed the young man to stay at her middle-class family home with her husband and children in the suburb of Bellevue. Hawkins was a friend of her sons, she said.

Maruca-Kovac described him as "introverted" and "troubled" when he first began staying with the family. She said Hawkins was fired this week from his job at McDonald's and recently broke up with his girlfriend.

Shortly before the shooting began, Maruca-Kovac said Hawkins phoned her to alert her to a suicide note he left, in which he wrote he was "sorry for everything" and wished not to be a burden on his family anymore.