Here I am obsessing over my own life and beating myself up for things like not doing the laundry... Meanwhile, there are things like this Nebraska mall shooting going on and I had no idea. Since I don't watch much television anymore (with the exception of DVR'd reality shows like America's Next Top Model, that I watch and fast forward through commercials and such), I miss out on some of the current events. I sometimes browse through the news online, but mostly this involves people.com, not cnn. :) (hey, don't blame me for wanting happy celeb gossip as opposed to depressing things like mass murder)
Anyway, yesterday I was browsing cnn and saw the news reports about a 19 year old kid who killed eight people and himself in an Omaha Nebraska shopping mall. Apparently, he was living with some friends and their mom, who describes him as being pretty fucked up emotionally. They didn't go into detail about what had led him down this emotionally dark path other than to say that recently his girlfriend had broken up with him and he was fired from his job at McDonald's. If that is all it takes for someone to get so depressed and messed up that they open up 20 rounds on a mall full of innocent people, we are heading for some dark times, my friends.
I guess one part of the article found at http://www.cnn.com/2007/US/12/06/mall.shooting/index.html that stuck out to me was all the signs he was giving to his "landlord". CNN reports, "Maruca Kovac told the Omaha World-Herald that Hawkins showed her an SKS semiautomatic Russian Military Rifle the night before the rampage, but she wasn't alarmed." Excuse me?? You're telling me that this boy moves in with you and has obvious emotional issues, is dealing with a breakup and losing his job... then he shows you a very dangerous and murder-friendly weapon and you aren't alarmed?? I wonder how that conversation went.
Maruca: Hi sweetheart, what's that you got there?
Hawkins: Oh, just wanted to show this sweet rifle I picked up.
Maruca: wow, where'd you get that? Walmart? Looks expensive, dear.
Hawkins: Well, expense means nothing to me now.
Maruca: That's nice dear. So, are you planning to go hunting this weekend or something? Not usually a lot of big game hunting in downtown Omaha this time of year you know.
Hawkins: Oh, I don't know. We'll see.
I don't know why this woman wasn't alarmed by the presence of a semiautomatic rifle in her house. Also, she says she got a phone call from him around 1 PM saying he was sorry for everything and that it was too late for him, that he was a piece of shit all his life. He told her he'd left a note. She claims she found this note saying that he was going to be famous now. After piecing together these three major clues... 1) A semiautomatic killing machine 2) A desperate apology phone call and 3) A suicide note that also claims that this is his ticket to fame... this woman did not call the police or try to do anything at all? I wonder what she did for the 42 minutes between reading the note and the first shot. I'm certainly not saying it's her fault. I am just pointing out that somewhere along the way he was at least trying to reach out and scream at her that he was not okay and that he needed help. Maybe there was nothing she could have done, and I suppose there probably wasn't. However, my advice to everyone would be that if a kid who is living with you shows you a semiautomatic rifle, you should ask him what the hell he's doing with it, and then promptly confiscate it and throw it over a bridge or something.
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