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View Full Version : Somebody is shooting up a shopping mall in Omaha



royalfan5
12/5/2007, 04:47 PM
At least 5 shot, shooter still at large. The story is still in progress. That mall will be a challenge to track down a shooter in.

sanantoniosooner
12/5/2007, 04:51 PM
That sucks.

I wish we could test for crazy and just exterminate prior to these incidents.

Hot Rod
12/5/2007, 04:59 PM
Hopefully when caught, they can exterminate this shooter.

royalfan5
12/5/2007, 05:15 PM
reports are now two dead, at least 5 wounded, and a guy in camoflauge arrested under a bus stop bench.

royalfan5
12/5/2007, 06:16 PM
Up to 9 dead now, more injured. Supposedly the shooter took his life.

StoopTroup
12/5/2007, 06:21 PM
What happened to Johnny Bench?

royalfan5
12/5/2007, 06:22 PM
They now have a suicide note from a 19 year old, saying he decided to "go out in style"

Whet
12/5/2007, 06:23 PM
Sad news....

Nine People Killed in Mall Shooting

Posted:var wn_last_ed_date = getLEDate("Dec 5, 2007 3:03 PM EST"); document.write(wn_last_ed_date); Dec 5, 2007 02:03 PM CST
Updated:var wn_last_ed_date = getLEDate("Dec 5, 2007 5:14 PM EST"); document.write(wn_last_ed_date); Dec 5, 2007 04:14 PM CST
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 mall are believed to be safe. Police are asking anyone in their cars outside the mall to stay inside their cars.
Von Maur Corporate issued this statement: "We are deeply saddened by the horrific shooting at our Omaha store this afternoon. Our thoughts and prayers are with the victims of this tragic event as well as they're families." The Director of Sales tells Action 3 News the store has a policy in place for emergencies such as this. He says workers at the Omaha store went through training for emergencies within the past year.
David Keating, Vice President of Corporate Communications for General Growth Properties which owns Westroads Mall, says, "It's believed the mall will be closed for the rest of the day." Keating says his company's number one concern is to make sure everyone is out of the mall and out of the way.
Reported by Jen Kucirek, [email protected] ([email protected]).

royalfan5
12/5/2007, 06:23 PM
What happened to Johnny Bench?
unknown at this point.

StoopTroup
12/5/2007, 06:24 PM
"In style..."

Sad.

royalfan5
12/5/2007, 06:26 PM
They now think there may have been two shooters.

M
12/5/2007, 06:26 PM
This kind of stuff makes me so mad, yet sad and helpless.

Boomer.....
12/5/2007, 06:30 PM
Horrible, senseless tragedies.

royalfan5
12/5/2007, 06:30 PM
I suppose the upside is they went into a department store, instead of the food court since the shooting happened around lunch time.

sanantoniosooner
12/5/2007, 06:31 PM
This stuff is the reason I bought my first handgun and will have a CC permit soon.

limey_sooner
12/5/2007, 06:37 PM
My nephew works at that mall. Fortunately I just got an email from him. Scary stuff.

royalfan5
12/5/2007, 06:41 PM
Sounds like the shooter's mo was to snipe with a rifle.

HskrGrl
12/5/2007, 06:51 PM
Please be praying for the victim and the victims' families. I'm still trying to get a hold of my mom and aunt. My mom told me earlier today that she was leaving early so they could go Christmas shopping together. I've been calling both of their cell phones and haven't reached them yet. They could very well be at one of the other malls in Omaha but I'm still scared. :(

olevetonahill
12/5/2007, 06:53 PM
Please be praying for the victim and the victims' families. I'm still trying to get a hold of my mom and aunt. My mom told me earlier today that she was leaving early so they could go Christmas shopping together. I've been calling both of their cell phones and haven't reached them yet. They could very well be at one of the other malls in Omaha but I'm still scared. :(

Dayum gurl , You got it .

OUHOMER
12/5/2007, 06:55 PM
damn, I am in..... Hopefully they are alright

Ike
12/5/2007, 06:58 PM
In.



Effing crazy people.

royalfan5
12/5/2007, 07:46 PM
Shooter was a 19 year old white male with multiple misdemeanors and was on anti-depressants.

royalfan5
12/5/2007, 07:55 PM
Apparently the shooting was done with a rifle from the 3rd floor balcony on to the second floor of the store.

tulsaoilerfan
12/5/2007, 08:07 PM
Please be praying for the victim and the victims' families. I'm still trying to get a hold of my mom and aunt. My mom told me earlier today that she was leaving early so they could go Christmas shopping together. I've been calling both of their cell phones and haven't reached them yet. They could very well be at one of the other malls in Omaha but I'm still scared. :(
Please tell us u have heard from them by now

royalfan5
12/5/2007, 08:19 PM
apparently the shooter was fired from his job at McDonald's this morning, and started the tragic events of today.

tommie15
12/5/2007, 08:19 PM
Please tell us u have heard from them by now

Come on HskrGrl...praying for you

olevetonahill
12/5/2007, 08:26 PM
Come on HskrGrl...praying for you
Peem sent No answer yet . :( :( :(

Newbomb Turk
12/5/2007, 08:29 PM
I sure hope all is well with the HskrGrl family. And prayers for families of the victims.

StoopTroup
12/5/2007, 08:40 PM
Losing your job at McDonalds should be a blessing not a reason to off the deep end.

HskrGrl
12/5/2007, 10:11 PM
Thank you so much for your prayers! My mom and Aunt were there when it happened. Thankfully they were in JcPenny and not in Von Maur. They had to stay inside JcPenny for quite a while, though. They were in lock down and they had to be interviewed by police. I will be back later with more info. I have to leave now.

royalfan5
12/5/2007, 10:11 PM
In addition to being fired from McDonalds, the shooter broke up with his girlfriend and was rejected by the Army in the past week. It is also the deadliest spree since Charles Starkwether in Nebraska, and the single deadliest shooting incident in Nebraska history.

Newbomb Turk
12/5/2007, 10:13 PM
Thank you so much for your prayers! My mom and Aunt were there when it happened. Thankfully they were in JcPenny and not in Von Maur. They had to stay inside JcPenny for quite a while, though. They were in lock down and they had to be interviewed by police. I will be back later with more info. I have to leave now.

so glad to hear they are ok.

olevetonahill
12/5/2007, 10:25 PM
so glad to hear they are ok.
No ****
Keep us posted .

soonerboomer93
12/5/2007, 10:41 PM
I'm glad to know they safe

sanantoniosooner
12/5/2007, 10:47 PM
Dang. Too much tragedy going around. Thank God your family wasn't included.

tommie15
12/5/2007, 10:51 PM
Thank you so much for your prayers! My mom and Aunt were there when it happened. Thankfully they were in JcPenny and not in Von Maur. They had to stay inside JcPenny for quite a while, though. They were in lock down and they had to be interviewed by police. I will be back later with more info. I have to leave now.

thank goodness...can't imagine what must have been going through your head most of the day

HskrGrl
12/5/2007, 11:03 PM
My Aunt said they were in JcPenny when it happened. JcPenny is right next to Von Maur (where the killings happened). They didn't hear any gun shots where they were. They were getting ready to go out into the mall when they saw a bunch of people running towards them into JcPenny. They started yelling at everyone to take cover and that there was someone shooting people in Von Maur. They turned around to go toward the outside exit and an announcement came over the loud speaker saying they were in lock down and no one was to leave the stores they were in. The employees pulled down the metal chain doors on the exits into the mall. They went to a dressing room and stayed there until they heard the police telling them they could come out. Then they had to wait there for a few hours before they were allowed to leave.

Turns out the shooter went to school with my cousins. He dropped out before he graduated though. None of them were friends with him, but they did know who he was. It's all so sad! :( I'm just waiting for them to release the names of the victims. :( :(

olevetonahill
12/5/2007, 11:09 PM
dayum girl
hope all is well .

royalfan5
12/5/2007, 11:45 PM
The shooter reportedly had an SKS style assault rifle with two magazines.

HskrGrl
12/5/2007, 11:53 PM
I guess a girl that knew the shooter said that he had told friends before that if his girlfriend broke up with him he was going to go to a mall and shoot a bunch of people before he killed himself. :(

royalfan5
12/6/2007, 12:02 AM
Sounds like 5 female, 3 male victims. Some of those are likely children.

HskrGrl
12/6/2007, 12:20 AM
God I really really hope not!! He was upstairs on the 3rd level which is where the children's department is, though. :(

FirstandGoal
12/6/2007, 12:21 AM
I was driving home from work tonight when I heard about this and was wondering if any of our Neb sf.com posters might have been involved/around this area. HskrGrl, I am really glad to see that your family is present and accounted for and are safe.

I don't have adequate words to describe how tragedies like this make me feel. It really sucks that a 19 year old kid decided to take his own life, but what kind of ****ed up world do we live in where he thinks its a good idea to 'decide' for someone else if they will live to see the holidays????? :mad:

Prayers going out to everyone who was and will be affected by this senseless tragedy.

soonerboomer93
12/6/2007, 12:30 AM
anyone hear from Veritas, does he still live in Neb?

royalfan5
12/6/2007, 12:32 AM
anyone hear from Veritas, does he still live in Neb?
He lives and works in Lincoln, and his and his wife's family lives outstate, so odds are pretty good that they should all be safe.

SOONER STEAKER
12/6/2007, 01:26 AM
Very sad deal or those involved. Just saw the kids landlord on TV, it's a shame the kids parents gave up on him at such an early age.

Okla-homey
12/6/2007, 07:49 AM
I'm furious about this. The killler was 19 flippin' years old and his former "landlord" is carrying on like he was some pathetic abused seven yera-old "lost puppy" who had been "kicked-out" of his own home.

She stated his parents gave him the boot at 18. I got news. If I had a 18 y/o loser who did little but sit around "playing with his xbox, smoking pot, and sleeping" his butt would be out too.

I'm sure we'll hear more about how this punk -- who apparently got fired from McDonalds, (which theoretically should be impossible unless you're caught stealing from Ronald) was somehow "driven" to this.

Over the coming days we'll hear a host of psych-pundits lament the killer's pathetic condition and how if he'd just gotten the help he needed this might have been avoided.

In the coming days we'll learn how it wasn't really his fault he went off the deep end -- which is precisely what his demented arse was hoping for when he pulled his murderous stunt.

We'll also hear renewed calls to ban guns. Especially the inherently evil SKS "assault" rifle he fired to kill those folks, despite the fact it now appears all shots were fired in semi-auto mode and thus he could have used any auto-loading long gun to do his evil deed.

<END RANT>

HskrGrl
12/6/2007, 02:25 PM
Thankfully none of the victims were children!! The youngest was 24. Of the 8 that were killed 2 were customers and 6 were employees. A friend of mine lives about a mile away from where he lived in Bellevue. Last school year she told me about a teenage boy that use to stand on the side of the road that she had to drive to take her son to school. He always had on a black trenchcoat even during the summertime. She told me that he always made her feel uncomfortable and she just figured that it was because of Columbine and them wearing black trenchcoats. Of course this kid that she use to see was Hawkins. :( That just gives me the chills.

SicEmBaylor
12/6/2007, 02:29 PM
I have a question and perhaps someone with law enforcement can answer it...
I heard some people from the mall being interviewed and saying it took a long time for the cops to enter the mall. Now, that may be their perception since they were under a considerable amount of stress, but this seems to be a fairly common complaint as of late when something like this happens.

My question is, why does SWAT/Cops seems to wait so damned long before entering a building these days? It seems like they go to great lengths to secure the outside of the building and they run around a lot outside, but it takes them FOREVER to enter the building. I understand wanting to protect the safety of the officers and not being reckless, but for God's sake when some ******* is inside shooting up innocent men and women you'd think they'd go in hell bent for leather and not worry about closing off every side street within a 10 mile radius first.

HskrGrl
12/6/2007, 03:27 PM
From the way it sounds he was done before they even got there. The police arrived 6 minutes after they recieved the first call to 911. I don't know how long it too them to get inside the building but I'm sure they don't just run right in for their own safety. I mean at that point they had no clue if it was just one guy or a bunch of guys and if he was dead or waiting by the doors for them to charge in.

One of the men that was killed was from Lincoln.