Mall gunman visited, left, returned armed

OMAHA, Dec. 6 (UPI) -- The teen who killed eight people in an shopping mall visited a store, left and then returned with an assault rifle, Omaha's police chief said Thursday.

Chief Thomas Warren said mall security officers noticed Robert A. Hawkins, 19, of Bellevue, Neb., briefly enter the Von Maur department store, where the shootings took place at the popular Westroads Mall, CNN reported.

Hawkins left the store, returning several minutes later and appeared to be concealing something, most probably the AK-47 assault rifle used in the rampage under a hooded sweatshirt, Warren said.

After taking an elevator to the third floor, Hawkins opened fire in the store's customer service area, Warren said. Hawkins fatally shot six store employees and two customers before turning the gun on himself.

Five people were injured, two critically.

Hawkins, who lived with a friend's family, apparently lost both his job and girlfriend recently. The friend's mother, Debra Maruca Kovac, said she found a suicide note after getting a phone call from Hawkins just minutes before the shootings.

"He basically said how sorry he was for everything," Maruca Kovac said. "He didn't want to be a burden to people and ... that now he'd be famous.