A Visit To The Mall, Then Gunshots
Victim Describes Being Struck In The Hand And Arm By Omaha Mall Teen Shooter
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Jeff Schaffart, shown here speaking with The Early Show was one of the people wounded in the mall shooting in Omaha, Nebraska, Wednesday, Dec. 5, 2007. He says he was there to buy his two-year-old daughter a dress for her visit with Santa. (CBS)
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Play CBS Video Video Omaha Massacre Up Close A young man opened gunfire onto a crowd of shoppers at an Omaha mall, killing 8 people before turning the gun on himself. Dean Reynolds reports from Nebraska.
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Video What Set Off Mall Gunman? Police are investigating why Robert A. Hawkins shot and killed shoppers at an Omaha mall. As Maggie Rodriguez reports, friends and family say Hawkins had a troubled life.
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Video Omaha Shooter's Car Searched "CBS News RAW": Police break into the car believed to have been owned by a gunman who killed himself and 8 others in a Nebraska mall, searching for a bomb and any additional harmful devices.
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Photo Essay Omaha Mall Shooting Man, 19, goes on shooting rampage in shopping mall, kills 8, then himself.
Stories:
- Inside The Mind Of A Mass Murderer
- Details On Shooting Victims
- Omaha Gunman's Note: "Now I'll Be Famous"
- Mall Shooter A Dropout With Criminal Past
- Visit To Mall, Then Gunshots
- Staying Safe At Malls
Video:
Photos:
In Depth:
Then he saw the blood streaming down his left arm and felt a stinging pain there.
"I could hear my wife, Carrie, yell, 'Get down! Get down!"' he said, "but I didn't."
Schaffart, 34, an Omaha attorney, and wife Carrie were on the third floor of the Von Maur department store Wednesday when a man began shooting, forcing holiday shoppers to flee and barricade themselves in dressing rooms.
Robert A. Hawkins, 19, killed eight people before turning his gun on himself, in a shooting rampage at an Omaha shopping mall, police said.
"I thought they were balloons or, you know, some kind of construction going on," Schaffert told CBS' The Early Show.
He and his wife eventually made their way into the women's restroom up there on the third floor.
The 34-year-old attorney used a necktie as a tourniquet to staunch the bleeding.
"The bleeding, thankfully, was not that bad, he told The Early Show.
Medical center representatives said they treated two other victims from the mall shooting: Fred Wilson, 61, who suffered a bullet wound to his chest. He had been in surgery for about six hours and was in critical condition in the intensive care unit Wednesday night. Wilson is a retired English teacher and was working as a customer service manager at Von Maur, a spokesman said.
Also hurt, a 55-year-old male who cut his face when he ran into a clothing rack. He was discharged.
Creighton University Medical Center spokeswoman Lisa Stites said one victim was dead upon arrival there, another died sometime after arriving, and a third, a woman, was in critical condition late Wednesday.
"I feel exceedingly lucky and fortunate to have made it through today," said Schaffart. "My heart goes out to those that didn't, and the families of those that weren't so lucky."
© MMVII, CBS Interactive Inc. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. The Associated Press contributed to this report.
Best-selling author Mitch Albom on his first nonfiction work since "Tuesdays with Morrie."





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See all 22 CommentsThis day in age, people with the facts are idiots and people with baseless opinions are smart.
What can you do.
You make yourself look more like an idiot,everytime you post.
Average people defend themselves EVERY DAY.
http://www.claytoncramer.com/gundefenseblog/blogger.html
If a woman is walking down the street or wherever, the rapist is going to surprise her. He isn''t going to announce, halfway down the street, "hey, I am going to rape you now". That means that unless she is carrying it in her hand, it is VERY UNLIKELY that she is going to get the opportunity to get ahold of that gun. AND if the rapist sees her going for the gun, she could very well end up dead for trying, whereas she may have been able to get away with her life otherwise.
"..I would never purposely hurt anyone. I''m the last person anyone has to worry about becoming violent."
I feel the same way about myself but unfortunately a lot of sick people out there are exactly the opposite. It is just plain wrong to force good people to be totally defenseless against violent criminals.
So what you are saying is that if a criminal chooses you as a would be victim, it"s best to simply be willingly slaughtered because defending yourself could lead to injury of others? If that works for you, great.
But it does not work for me. Why are you trying to impose your values on others?
Just how are my legally owned and so called "assualt weapons" a direct threat to my life or my neightbors?
I have been carrying a gun for about 10 years now. I have not shot anyone yet, or pulled it. My wife has been carrying for a couple of months now. Same thing.
But then again, we have never been involved as would be victims of a crime either.
I wonder if you could settle the dispute between you and a would be rapist with a gun? You know, the dispute where you don"t want to be raped and the rapist is not taking "no" for an answer?
Just how do you propose to settle this "dispute"?
animalwoman,
So if YOU had a gun, you would shoot people just because they burped?
If so, please get mental help ASAP!
"Let me make a point here, in case this isn''t becoming extremely clear. My state has gun control laws. It did not keep Hennard from coming in and killing everybody! What it did do, was keep me from protecting my family!"
- Dr. Suzanne Gratia Hupp, Killeen Texas Luby''s massacre survivor
What you have then is a WAR, in which even more people will be killed.
Who among us does not know the proliferation of Assault weapons in a civil society is dangerous and a direct threat to our lives and that of our neighbors.
What can stop them is an intended victim who is armed and capable of protecting themselves.
If your state has concealed carry and you would like to be responsible for your own safety, then get educated, get trained, and get prepared.
It takes only seconds for a criminal to murder innocent people, but it can take many minutes for the police to arrive and by then the damage will be done.
www.a-human-right.com
"Laws that forbid the carrying of arms . . . disarm only those who are neither inclined nor determined to commit crimes . . . Such laws make things worse for the assaulted and better for the assailants; they serve rather to encourage than to prevent homicides, for an unarmed man may be attacked with greater confidence than an armed man."
-- Thomas Jefferson, quoting criminologist Cesare Beccaria
Chance pays a strange role in our lives and this was bad luck for the victims. How sad for the families and friends of the victims, including those of the shooter.
Why not? If he didn''t have a gun it probably would not have happened. Guns are used by the spineless because it is so easy to stand and shoot. I doubt that he would have attempted this with a knife. You would need some GUTS to pull that off.
The United Nations wants to take away our right to own guns. Do you want countries like China, Syria, Iran and the such to dictate what you can do in America. I do not.
Not ranting, just some idle thoughts.
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