Omaha Shooter's Suicide Note Revealed

Teen Gunman Wrote "I've Just Snapped" Before Rampage That Killed 8, Wounded 5

(CBS/AP)  The gunman who killed eight people in a mall shooting "just snapped," he said in a suicide note released Friday that combines love for his friends and family with contempt for his random 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," the 19-year-old wrote. "I just want to take a few pieces of (expletive) with me."

Police released the three-page, handwritten note Friday after The Associated Press made a Freedom of Information Act request.

Also released were three surveillance pictures showing Hawkins in the minutes before he murdered eight people and wounded five others in an Omaha shopping mall before taking his own life.

Hawkins left the note Wednesday at the house where he lived, before he went to the Westroads Mall and opened fire in the Von Maur store, fatally wounding eight people before taking his own life.

The first page of the note was for his friends: "I love all of you so much and I don't want anyone to miss me just think about how much better you are off without me to support."

In the second page, addressed to his family, he wrote, "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 added, "I love you mommy. I love you dad," and expressed love for several other people.

The third page was his will: "I'm giving my car back to my mom and my friends can have whatever else I leave behind."

The surveillance photos show Hawkins walking into the mall - at first unarmed, wearing glasses, a black zippered sweat shirt over what appears to be a black Jack Daniel's T-shirt.

In another image recorded six minutes later, he returns and strides through an entrance decked with holiday decorations, an apparent bulge under his clothing.

In the third picture, he is shown with his sleeves rolled up, aiming the AK-47 to fire.

The images appear to contradict earlier reports that the gunman had a military-style haircut and entered the mall wearing a camouflage vest.

Out of respect for the victims and their families, the mall remains closed until Saturday, but no word on when Von Maur will reopen.

Families are now planning funerals.

56-year-old Gary Joy worked in Von Maur's department store.

"I have seen tragedy before and they are all more or less alike," Lorraine Hedman, the victim's aunt, said. "You hurt and there is not a thing you can do about it."

Though he is being labeled a monster, Hawkins' best friend is still defending him.

"He wasn't a monster, he was a good person," Hawkins' best friend Craig Kovac said, though he also admitted, "I can t justify what he did.

"I feel really sorry for the victims," he added.

And there are new questions about why the 19-year-old high school dropout was released from state custody, according to CBS News correspondent Jennifer Miller.

Hawkins was put in a series of treatment centers, group homes and foster care after threatening his stepmother. State officials are defending their actions to let him go last year.

"This tragedy was not a failure of the system to provide appropriate quality services for youth that needed it," said Todd Landry, director of Nebraska Health and Human Services' Division of Children and Family Services.

After he was arrested and fired from his job in the last few weeks, Hawkins - in his own words - wanted to go out in style.

Meanwhile, another Nebraska teenager has been charged with threatening a girl who made statements the teen didn't like about Hawkins.

Five charges were read Friday against 17-year-old Davis S. Horvath of Bellevue, including one of intimidation by phone call. The other charges were for unrelated, prior incidents.

Horvath entered no plea.

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Audio Of Call To Omaha Police During Mall Shooting

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Bellevue Police Chief John Stacey says statements the teenage girl made about the gunman offended Horvath, who says Hawkins was his best friend.

Stacey says Horvath called the girl late Wednesday and threatened her life.

Police found a rifle and two shotguns at Horvath's house when it was searched Thursday.

[erasmus6]

"I think you immature and unwilling to face the truth, you see things as you want and have no regard for fact. If you did you would admit that statistics show crime increases in the absense of ability to protect oneself (ban on guns) as has been proven in Canada..." posted by guysdigdirt


Like I said before you are wrong. There may be a rise in a couple of cities but overall the crime rate has gone down. You need to find better sources of information.


"They do not print anything about the estimated 5 million people who use a gun each year to defend themselves."

I don''t think you are getting my point. The fact that 5 million people even have to use a gun to protect themselves is what I am talking about.

HERE, we don''t need guns to protect ourselves because there is nothing to protect ourselves from!!!

I am not saying we have absolutely no crime but it is rare for us to have to protect ourselves. I don''t think you get it.

If everybody started carrying guns here, then the crime rate would go up, just like it has there. When everybody starts carrying them, then you have whackos getting them and children getting them. You get people getting angry and grabbing them without thinking. They become the answer to all problems. More people will start dying from sheer stupidity.

The FACT is that YOU have more crime and we have less.

[guysdigdirt]

I am not saying because they were prostitutes that they deserved to be killed but they didn''''t need a gun to change the outcome. If they weren''''t hanging out on the street selling their wares, things would have been a whole lot different.
Posted by erasmus6

Until you walk in another''s shoes you should not judge them. YOu never know what their situation was and I hope you never are there yourself, but as you said they did not deserve to die.

Let''s just say one of them had a sick child and had to work to pay for the childs well being. It is the only work she can get, she does not like it either. Now your country says she cannot protect herself from a larger and stronger man. Is that right?

What if she was not a street walker but a cabbie, does she deserve to be able to protect herself from a larger and stronger man? How will she do that?

You never told me what you would do if a couple of large men came into your home with evil intent toward you, your daughter or anyone else in your family. YOu took the chicken way out, will you answer me now with a truthful answer?

[guysdigdirt]

erassmus,
We will have to agree to disagree on the gun issue.

I think you immature and unwilling to face the truth, you see things as you want and have no regard for fact. If you did you would admit that statistics show crime increases in the absense of ability to protect oneself (ban on guns) as has been proven in Canada, the UK and Australia. If you look at the worst city in the nation for crime you will find the one city in the US that allows no law abiding citizen to lwn an operable firearm. How can you argue with facts as those?

[guysdigdirt]

Erassmus, Yes, I am saying that CBS is biased against guns and they tend to only print the anti-gun type stories. They do not print anything about the estimated 5 million people who use a gun each year to defend themselves. Their poster person Katie is openly anit-gun and their last poster person Danny was the lead act at a recent anti-gun party, and has supported them openly for many years.

If you believe everything you hear on this site then you will have no basis of understanding as they opinions are diverse. if you follow the facts as they are posted with substantiating evidence and sites you can go to for back ground information you will find that the majority of the US wants to protect themselves and is anti increased gun control.

If you feel you can glean a correct image of whether guns should be legal in the US or not by reading what is posted by a biased news company, "extensive visits to see relatives in teh US" and what is written here, you are a fool.

[erasmus6]

MichelleM99

He is in for life and I doubt very much if he will ever make parole.

[erasmus6]

"Forgive me But that pig farmer got off too easy. He had to planned them killings ." posted by MichelleM99

Yes, he did get off too easy, I don''t know what the jurors were thinking. I think the reason they made it second degree murder is that they figured that he didn''t do it alone and I heard the only thing really tying him to those bodies is the fact that they were found on his property. So I don''t know if that means they didn''t find any of his DNA on anything they found?

[michellem99-2009]

Forgive me But that pig farmer got off too easy. He had to planned them killings .

[erasmus6]

guysdigdirt

Let me guess, you are they only one that tells the truth, right?

You are a joke.

[erasmus6]

"Have you ever been or lived in the US? Where do you get your info? Word of mouth? " posted by guysdigdirt

Tell me something, do you actually read what my posts say? If you did you wouldn''t keep asking me the same questions over and over.

I and my family have traveled to the states many times over the years and have stayed for extended periods of time. We have relatives in the states.

I also get my information from the people who post on this site. Are you saying that I can''t believe anything anyone says on this site? Including YOU?
How about CBS? Are they lying in all the articles they write?

[erasmus6]

"These 50+ women he killed, they relied on someone else to protect them. If one of them had had a gun, it all might have been different." posted by guysdigdirt

I am not saying because they were prostitutes that they deserved to be killed but they didn''t need a gun to change the outcome. If they weren''t hanging out on the street selling their wares, things would have been a whole lot different.