Omaha Mall Shooting - 9 Dead

[da3dalus]

(CNN) -- A gunman killed eight people and wounded five others Wednesday at the popular Westroads Mall in Omaha, Nebraska, before apparently turning the gun on himself, police said.

The Westroads Mall in Omaha, Nebraska, is locked down after the shooting.

"We do not believe that we have any other shooter," said Sgt. Teresa Negron.

The shooting took place at the Von Maur store inside the shopping complex, which was locked down, the Nebraska State Patrol said.

Shoppers and employees walked out of the building with their hands up. Some described hiding in clothes racks and dressing rooms after hearing the shots. Video Watch witnesses describe the ordeal »

"I was standing around getting ready to go back to work and all of a sudden I heard this bang, bang, bang -- it sounded like someone shooting fireworks," a witness told CNN affiliate KETV. "I ran to get away from whatever was happening."

Shoppers described scenes of horror as they fled the mall.

"We heard about 35, 40 shots, and on our way our we did see someone down by the escalator, bleeding," Jennifer Cramer told KETV.

Another witness said people started running frantically from the Von Maur area saying there was a shooting.

"I heard three loud pops," said mall employee Charissa Tatoon. "Immediately after that, there was a series of maybe 20 to 25 more shots up on the third floor." She said she saw a man shot on the second floor and "at least four or five" people brought out on gurneys.
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Another woman who works at the mall said she saw a woman shot, and added that the shots seemed to be coming from inside the Von Maur store, on an upper level.

People were gathering outside the mall, checking on loved ones believed to be inside.

You hear about this stuff but you never expect it to show up in your own town. I mean, this is the most tragic thing to occur in our city ever. Things like this just don't happen here. My parents were out shopping, but had stopped off to look at another shopping center and were not at Westroads yet. I seriously have lost all faith in humanity. I don't know if i'm depressed or just pissed off.

Anyway, all of my friends and family are safe to the best of my knowledge so I have much to be thankful for today. Keep our small city in your thoughts and prayers.

 

[SWIFTVISION]

But, but, it's a "gun free zone"!!!?????

 

[ShiftyBob]

sad to hear... :frown:

It's weird.. with as many crazy and F'd up people as there are in CA, and with all the gangs in CA, you'd expect more stuff like this to happen out here than anywhere else. But it's quite the contrary. Most of this BS happens in small towns in the middle of nowhere, you harldy ever see crap like this in CA. I can't even remember the school/mall/public shooting we had here... if ever.

My prayers go out to the families of those victims, and I'm glad everyone else is otay!

 

[HTN]

This is horrible. I am glad to hear that your family is safe. My heart goes out to your hometown. What a crazy world we are living in.

 

[davidf]

I heard he was mad because he lost his job at Mcdonalds. WTF!

 

[queenlives]

thank goodness we americans have access to guns.

 

[Nav]

thank god your family is safe. My condolences go out to the families of the unfortunate people that were killed in this despicable, cowardly act. Being the holiday season makes it even harder on the families, as everyone is usually getting ready for family get-togethers etc., and now, instead of being able to laugh and enjoy each others company, the are mourning their loss.

I heard he was mad because he lost his job at Mcdonalds. WTF!

He got kicked out of his parents house (about a year ago, I beleive), which was horrible. Then got fired from McDonalds (couldnt flip those burgers fast enough), and to top it all off, his girlfriend left him (I don't blame her, he is a loser)

It's about time we stop looking at everyone else for excuses.

It wasnt his parents fault for him getting kicked out of the house, it wasnt his managers fault for firing him from McDonalds and it wasnt his girlfriends fault for breaking up with him.

It was his fault.

We need more real men in this world, not p*ssies like him that decide that they are down on their luck, and it is everyone elses fault, and they deserve attention. Which someohow gives them the "justification" to start killing other people, and then, to top it all off, the coward of all cowards has the galls to shoot himself also, because he isn't man enough to face the music.

F**k him.

 

[VictorH]

thank goodness we americans have access to guns.

In light of this tragedy, that is one of the least sensitive and most self serving comments in this thread. This is the wrong time to bring up your spin on gun control. Please keep it to yourself and respect those that have lost lives or been affected by this.

Please retract or start another thread on gun control!

My heart goes out to those in Omaha. May they find a way as a community to overcome their losses.

 

[queenlives]

In light of this tragedy, that is one of the least sensitive and most self serving comments in this thread. This is the wrong time to bring up your spin on gun control. Please keep it to yourself and respect those that have lost lives or been affected by this.

Please retract or start another thread on gun control!

My heart goes out to those in Omaha. May they find a way as a community to overcome their losses.

thx for your feedback.

 

[SWIFTVISION]

thank goodness we americans have access to guns.

If more American's carried guns some one could have stopped this traggity from happening.

 

[da3dalus]

What does it say about America and our society in general if we all have to be carrying weapons to defend ourselves while christmas shopping at an upscale mall in a wealthy part of town?

Whether your for gun control or not, its a sad day if this is what its come to.

 

[queenlives]

If more American's carried guns some one could have stopped this traggity from happening.

this is no more likely than providing internet posters with spell checking programs will eliminate spelling errors.

my original post on this thread was not & should not be construed as my attempt to hijack the thread and turn it into a gun control thread. i was simply voicing my frustration.

 

[NSXrunner]

If more American's carried guns some one could have stopped this traggity from happening.

Or they could have helped cause more carnage.

Im not an advocate of gun control one way or the other way. I consider myself a realist, there is no way to predict 100% the actions of crazy people. You can do all the studies and theories in the world until you are blue in the face and still end up with nothing but more questions. I think its a waste of time and nothing more than a reason for people to justify their emotions and find answers to the eternal question of "Why?", and the one that follows it "How do we prevent it from happening again?".

Predicting and preventing things like this cant be done period, no matter how much you try, so just move on with your life, pay your respects, and accept the fact that you will eventually die yourself, wether it is from natural causes or some nut job who had a bad day because people made fun of them or they couldn't flip burgers fast enough.

Life does not come with guarantees. If you learn to predict such things then see me because I need you to think up some guaranteed winning lottery numbers for me as well as who is going to win the Super Bowl each year for the rest of my life so I can make the appropriate bets in Vegas.

Sorry if my response seems cold hearted, its not meant to be, I do feel to the folks who lost loved ones, its just my two cents on life and what you can and cannot expect out of it.

 

[Ryanmcd2]

In my town it is a LAW to own a gun. There has never been a person robbed and if this happened at my mail in the same town he would of been gunned down by several people. Also people that move here are told about the law and it makes people think before they pull a stunt like this. Also in Cali the gangs take care of crap like this.

 

[Ryanmcd2]

Or they could have helped cause more carnage.

Im not an advocate of gun control one way or the other way. I consider myself a realist, there is no way to predict 100% the actions of crazy people. You can do all the studies and theories in the world until you are blue in the face and still end up with nothing but more questions. I think its a waste of time and nothing more than a reason for people to justify their emotions and find answers to the eternal question of "Why?", and the one that follows it "How do we prevent it from happening again?".

Predicting and preventing things like this cant be done period, no matter how much you try, so just move on with your life, pay your respects, and accept the fact that you will eventually die yourself, wether it is from natural causes or some nut job who had a bad day because people made fun of them or they couldn't flip burgers fast enough.

Life does not come with guarantees. If you learn to predict such things then see me because I need you to think up some guaranteed winning lottery numbers for me as well as who is going to win the Super Bowl each year for the rest of my life so I can make the appropriate bets in Vegas.

Sorry if my response seems cold hearted, its not meant to be, I do feel to the folks who lost loved ones, its just my two cents on life and what you can and cannot expect out of it.

I am with you 100% on this, but if you have no gun you are helpless. At least if someone was to rob my house I would hope to get a few shots off Also true you can die at anytime, believe me I know.

 

[NSXrunner]

I am with you 100% on this, but if you have no gun you are helpless. At least if someone was to rob my house I would hope to get a few shots off Also true you can die at anytime, believe me I know.

Yup but even if you do have a gun its not a guarantee. Not meant to flame, just that you can miss via some random sneeze or something in your eye and he/she doesn't.

What frustrates me about stories like this are the constant cry whining about people and the media of "Why" and "How can we prevent?" babble, its a waste of time, guy was nuts, end of story.

Take away guns, he uses a car, a knife, whatever he imagines might do harm.

Give every one guns, you might end up with people who have had too much coffee jumping to conclusions if they happen to see someone with a gun just standing there. Guy might be an undercover cop or someone whos holster is on too tight and just took his gun out to adjust it. BANG...whoops...sorry...should have had the decaf...