Investigators on Friday released surveillance footage showing the prelude to Robert Hawkins' pre-suicide assault on holiday shoppers at an Omaha mall. Eight people were fatally shot before Hawkins turned the gun on himself.
A first-floor security camera caught images of the scene minutes after the 19-year-old gunman opened fire: People scurry out of the store and the first policeman arrives with his gun drawn.
A chilling surveillance photo from the third floor shows Hawkins taking aim at shoppers.
His hand-scrawled suicide note offers compassion for his friends and 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."
Hawkins left the note on Wednesday at the suburban house where he lived.
Police did not release video from the third floor where Hawkins fired the gun. But a still image taken from the videotape shows Hawkins with his sleeves rolled up, aiming the AK-47.
The photos appear to contradict earlier reports that the gunman had a military-style haircut and entered the mall wearing a camouflage vest. Also, his suicide note makes no mention of a desire to "go out in style," as was widely reported in broadcast news reports.
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 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," he wrote.
"I love you mommy. I love you dad," he continued, telling them to remember the good times they had.
"Just think tho I'm gonna be (expletive) famous," he wrote.
Some who knew Hawkins in suburban Bellevue said Friday that they tried to warn police about his recent behavior.
Kevin Harrington, who lived nearby, said he contacted 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 outside their jurisdiction. Police Chief John Stacey would not talk about Harrington's complaint, but said officers typically pass complaints from that neighborhood to 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 once shot at a car during a drug deal gone bad.
