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Columbine High School Massacre Discussion Forum
A place to discuss the Columbine High School Massacre along with other school shootings and crimes. Anyone interested in researching, learning, discussing and debating with us, please come join our community!
Subject: Westroads Mall Shooting Fri Feb 16, 2018 4:40 pm
I really never see or hear much about this shooting at all. Are there any crime scene photos from the mall?
And what about Robert, how did he kill himself? Was the mall renovated or just cleaned? I have a lot of questions about this one. Seems to be little info out there.
Ericklebold99
Posts : 47 Contribution Points : 69345 Forum Reputation : 0 Join date : 2017-03-09
Robert A Hawkins committed suicide by gunshot wound to the head after killing 8 people. The mall was only closed for a few days after the shooting, however, still remains open as of today
HuskerStorm
Posts : 31 Contribution Points : 83300 Forum Reputation : 0 Join date : 2015-08-26
Subject: Re: Westroads Mall Shooting Sat Feb 17, 2018 1:02 am
I am from Omaha. I remember when it happened. It happened in Von Maur which was attached to the mall (so if you went into Von Maur from the outside, you would have to go through it to be in the mall proper).
It seemed like they were closer together, but there was this one as well (technically Millard, but I think it's pretty much Omaha to those outside of the metro area) -- [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.]
My step brother was a teacher there when that happened.
Mariposa919
Posts : 5 Contribution Points : 59057 Forum Reputation : 0 Join date : 2018-04-18
I live in Omaha and she had come from Lincoln to visit me to do some Christmas shopping and lunch. We did our shopping at another mall, but at the time, I lived near this mall where the shootings occurred. We planned to have lunch at the Macaroni Grill which was in that area. We did debate whether we wanted to do some more shopping at Von Maur, because we usually liked to go in there and just browse around. But on that day, THANK GOD, we decided against it, that we didn't need to do any more shopping.
We had our lunch and about five minutes before my mom paid the bill, our waiter came over to tell us there had been a shooting at Von Maur and we could wait in the restaurant if we didn't feel it was safe to go out. (Of course, I'm sure by that time, the shooter was already dead, but nobody knew that). It didn't even occur to me that it was a mass shooting...I was thinking somebody had shot somebody over the last bottle of a perfume or something stupid like that. Yeah, I'm an idiot.
Lots of people were looking out the windows where there were police cars and ambulances positioned everywhere around the mall. We were allowed to leave (and there were a lot of other cars leaving too and we saw people huddling in the parking lot everywhere around the mall) and we put on the radio to listen to the news. And when we returned to my apartment, we turned on the news. I could hear the helicopters flying overhead.
I used to go to that Von Maur quite a lot, but I've only been there twice since the shooting. Part of this is due to that I live in another area of Omaha, so it's not as convenient to get to now. But even if I still lived in that area, I don't think I would go there much anywhere. It's just creepy being in a place where there was so much carnage and people died. They have a plaque to memorialize the people who died.
But, you're right. You really don't hear about it anymore. Even people in Omaha never talk about it. Hell, sometimes I forget about this shooting and I literally lived three minutes from the place where it happened!
Dunkelziffer
Posts : 43 Contribution Points : 102860 Forum Reputation : 0 Join date : 2013-07-06
I really never see or hear much about this shooting at all. Are there any crime scene photos from the mall?
And what about Robert, how did he kill himself? Was the mall renovated or just cleaned? I have a lot of questions about this one. Seems to be little info out there.
[You must be registered and logged in to see this link.] There's some info in the Wikipedia article. For more info, go through the footnotes.
[You must be registered and logged in to see this link.] Hawkins' suicide note.
[You must be registered and logged in to see this link.] Transcription of Hawkins' Suicide Note.
[You must be registered and logged in to see this link.] The Omaha-World Herald is a good source.
Subject: Westroads Mall Shooting 
Fri Feb 16, 2018 4:40 pm
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