OMAHA, Neb. Dec. 6, 2007 -- The woman who housed Omaha mall shooter Robert Hawkins said he was troubled after being fired from a job at McDonald's.Debora Kovac, at whose home Hawkins was staying, said Hawkins, 19, was coming out of his room Wednesday morning when she last saw him, reported Omaha television station KETV."He said he'd gotten fired and was pretty upset and said, 'This is the only way,' and we tried to talk to him," Kovac said. "He was just a very troubled -- I had no idea that he was this troubled."Kovac said Hawkins wrote in a suicide note that he was "sorry for everything" but also noted that "now I'll be famous."Hawkins was apparently friends with Kovac's sons, and she offered her home to give him stability.Kovac said that she believed Hawkins stole the gun from his stepfather.Kovac said she saw Hawkins with a gun Tuesday night and thought he and her sons were going hunting, which they did quite often.Hawkins killed 9 people, including himself, at Omaha's Westroads Mall on Wednesday, according to police. The shooting is the worst mass murder in Nebraska history. Five more people were injured, two critically, police said.ABC News has confirmed with two sources that the gun used at Westroads Mall was an SKS-style assault rifle with two magazines taped together found at the scene. ABC reported that taping magazines together is a technique that allows the shooter to reload more quickly.That may be why witnesses heard so many shots when Hawkins opened fire on Wednesday afternoon.Omaha Police Chief Thomas Warren confirmed the rifle style, but would not confirm the magazine detail.Outside Hawkins' mother's home, Omaha police and a crew from the Federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives were serving a search warrant in La Vista just before 10 p.m.Warren said the shooting appears to be random and without provocation.Warren said officers believe Hawkins acted alone, and that the entire incident took just a few minutes.Warren said it may be impossible to come up with an explanation for Hawkins' actions, but he believes the act was premeditated.Creighton University Medical Center said it had three victims, and two were fatalities. The dead were a man and a woman, and no further details were released.The Nebraska Medical Center said it has three gunshot victims, all wounded but alive.Paul Vaultus, at NMC, said Fred Wilson, 61, was out of surgery at 10 p.m. and in critical condition. He is a retired teacher who taught English at St. Albert Catholic High School in Council Bluffs, Iowa. He also taught in Shenandoah and Clear Lake, Iowa.A 34-year-old man had a wound and was in fair condition. A 55-year-old man had cuts to the face.Dr. Bob Muelleman said the most critically injured man taken to the Nebraska Medical Center was still in surgery six hours after the shooting.Muelleman said the victim had serious injuries to his chest wall and upper extremity trauma. Muelleman described the wound as one from a high-powered rifle.'Anything But A Terrorist'Andrew Bigler said that Hawkins was "an awesome kid" and that he loved him like a brother."Robbie was anything but a terrorist," he said, and said he didn't think Hawkins was filled with anger, just that he was an average teenager with average problems.Other friends told KETV that Hawkins was a funny person who liked to make others laugh.Victim 'Exceedingly Lucky'One shooting victim -- a lawyer who was hit in the arm and finger -- said he feels "exceedingly lucky" to have lived through the terrifying scene.Jeff Schaffart was shopping for a dress for his daughter to see Santa on Wednesday night. The child, 2, was not with him, but his wife was. He said he was shot from behind. Just before he realized he was hit, Schaffart said, he heard something."I heard gunshots. I initially thought they were some kind of balloons popping or construction. Then I heard people starting to panic, and they said, 'Get down. Get down,'" Schaffart said.He said he went through a women's restroom as his wife hid nearby. Schaffart said he realized he'd been shot when he saw blood on his arm."There was a woman there with her baby and we basically stayed there for, I believe, a couple minutes. It sounded like the shots had subsided. I went to find my wife. She wouldn't come out the area she was hiding in," Schaffart said.TimelineThe shooting happened at about 2 p.m. CST, with the first call coming to police at 1:42 p.m., KETV reported.Shoppers described a scene of chaos and panic when the shooting started, with people sprinting through stores and corridors, and some hiding in closets.Jennifer Kramer, a witness, told KETV that she heard 35 to 40 shots as she was taking cover inside the mall. Kramer's mother, who was with her, said she "just kept hoping God would spare us."Keith Fidler, a Von Maur store employee, told The Associated Press he heard a burst of five to six shots followed by 15 to 20 more shots. Fidler said he huddled in the corner of the men's clothing department with about a dozen other employees until police yelled to get out of the store.KETV reported that the shooting started near the customer service area on the third level of the store. The Associated Press reported that witnesses said the shooter opened fire with a rifle, firing down from a third-floor balcony.One witness told KETV that she saw bodies and blood in a store. Another said she saw a tall gunman in the children's department of a department store. She said he was a tall man, holding his arm up in the air and firing.First responders could be seen escorting people from the building. Its surrounding parking lots were filled with emergency vehicles, evacuated shoppers and onlookers.
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