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Dec 8, 2007 2:00 am US/Eastern
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Gunman's Suicide Note, Images Released
OMAHA, Neb. (CBS) ―
Chilling surveillance images released Friday show a shaggy-haired,
bespectacled Robert Hawkins taking aim at holiday shoppers, and his
hand-scrawled suicide note offers compassion for his friends and only
contempt for his victims.
"I know everyone will remember me as some sort of monster, but
please understand that I just don't want to be a burden on the ones
that I care for my entire life," he wrote. "I just want to take a few
peices (sic) of (expletive) with me."
The 19-year-old gunman left the note at the suburban house where he
lived Wednesday before going to Omaha's Westroads Mall with an AK-47
and opening fire on the midday holiday shopping crowd, fatally shooting
eight people at the Von Maur store before turning the gun on himself.
Surveillance video and still images of the attack show Hawkins
initially walking into the mall unarmed, wearing glasses, a black
zippered sweat shirt over a black T-shirt with a white logo. He
returned to the store six minutes later, according to timestamps on the
footage.
Video of the department store's south entrance shows Hawkins
entering the festooned store and immediately walking to the elevator to
his right. His right hand was tight against his midsection to hide what
police said was an AK-47 assault rifle.
Other footage released showed people fleeing the store, and the first police officer on the scene walking in with gun drawn.
Police did not release video of the shooting, but released a still
image from the tape that showed Hawkins with his sleeves rolled up,
aiming the AK-47 to fire in front of a store mannequin.
The photos appear to contradict earlier reports that the gunman had
a military-style haircut and entered the mall wearing a camouflage
vest. Also, the note made no mention of widely reported broadcast
reports that he wrote he wanted to "go out in style."
Hawkins was a troubled teenager who spent four years in a series of
treatment centers, group homes and foster care after threatening to
kill his stepmother in 2002. He had recently broken up with a
girlfriend recently and lost his job at a McDonald's.
"I've just snapped. I can't take this meaningless existence anymore
I've been a constant disappointment and that trend would have only
continued."
Hawkins added, "I love you mommy. I love you dad," and expressed
love for several other people. He told them to remember the good times
they had.
"Just think tho I'm gonna be (expletive) famous," he wrote.
Also Friday, those who knew Hawkins most recently in suburban
Bellevue said they tried to warn police about his behavior but got no
response.
A man who lived nearby said he went to police a month ago to report
his and other parents' concerns that Hawkins and his friends had easy
access to guns, sold drugs and smoked pot with an adult.
Bellevue police said the house where Hawkins lived is in an
unincorporated part of the city and not in their jurisdiction. Police
Chief John Stacey would not talk about Kevin Harrington's complaint,
but said normally officers pass complaints from that neighborhood onto
the Sarpy County Sheriff.
Sheriff's officials said they never received the complaint.
Harrington, 45, said he told police in Bellevue about a month ago
that one of Hawkins' friends offered to sell Valium to his 13-year-old
son. Harrington said he also told police that Hawkins had previously
shot at a car during a drug deal gone bad.
"We told them about the drugs, we told them about the guns, and nothing was done," Harrington said.
Harrington said his 16-year-old daughter used to hang out with the
group of teens in the neighborhood at the home of Debora Maruca-Kovac,
the 50-year-old woman Hawkins lived with.
Maruca-Kovac told the Omaha World-Herald that Hawkins showed
her a rifle on Tuesday, but that she thought it was too old to work.
Harrington said he wished someone had listened to the warnings.
He called police again Thursday after his daughter got a phone call from Hawkins' best friend, 17-year-old David Horvath.
After the shootings, Horvath left Shelby Harrington a voicemail
message, threatening to "cap" her if she didn't stop saying bad things
about Hawkins, Harrington said.
Shelby Harrington had posted a critical comment about Hawkins
on an Internet site after some of Hawkins' friends defended him.
Horvath was charged Friday in Sarpy County Court with intimidation by
phone call.
Horvath's attorney Julianne Herzog tried to persuade the judge
to release Horvath to his parents' custody. But Judge Robert O'Neal
ordered Horvath to remain in juvenile detention until a psychiatric
evaluation could be completed.
Horvath's parents told the judge that their son had not
threatened anyone like this before, and they believe he made the threat
in a moment of grief over his friend's death. After the hearing,
Horvath's parents and Herzog exited the courthouse through a rear door
and avoided reporters.
On Thursday evening, while Harrington's daughter was filming an
interview with TV's "Good Morning America," she got a threatening text
message from another friend of Hawkins. A 16-year-old boy was cited for
disturbing the peace in that incident, Bellevue police said.
Meanwhile, funerals for some of Hawkins' victims were
announced. A wake for John McDonald, of Council Bluffs, Iowa, was
scheduled for Sunday, with a funeral the following day in his hometown.
A vigil for Janet Jorgensen, a 14-year Von Maur employee, was scheduled
for Sunday evening in Omaha, with a funeral Mass on Monday.
Jorgensen's family members gathered to pray for the victims and their families — including Hawkins' family.
"They're not vindictive people," family friend Paul Huntimer
said Friday to a gathering of reporters at the Jorgensens' Omaha home.
"It was important to Ron that prayers go out to the suspect's family."
The mall was scheduled to reopen on Saturday.
(© 2007 CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. The Associated Press contributed to this report.)