Nine dead in Nebraska mall shooting

OMAHA, Nebraska - A 19-year-old man killed eight people and then himself with an assault rifle at a busy mall in Omaha on Wednesday, sending terrified workers and Christmas shoppers scrambling for cover.

"Now I will be famous," the gunman wrote in a suicide note, his landlady told CNN after finding a three-part document that she said included his will.

Police declined to discuss the contents of the note.

Five people were wounded, two of them critically, in the early afternoon rampage in the Midwestern U.S. city. Most of the victims at the upscale Westroads Mall were shot inside the Von Maur department store near the children's clothing area.

"It was horrible, just horrible," one woman told local television station KETV, saying she hid under a rack of clothes when the gunfire started.

The Nebraska shooting was the latest in a series of mass killings that have shocked the United States, where gun ownership is widespread and the right to bear arms is a fiercely contested constitutional issue.

The White House said it was a "terrible tragedy."

"It's hard to believe it would happen here," said Jennifer Bettger, who left the mall just before the gunman opened fire. "It stops you in your tracks. We're all asking why. Why here?"

Omaha Police Chief Thomas Warren identified the gunman as Robert Hawkins, 19, from Bellevue, Nebraska, near Omaha. He was living with friends after going through a series of hard times, according to many who said they were close to Hawkins.

Warren said the dead were five females and three males but he would not specify whether any were children.

"It would be speculation to try to figure out what the motive may have been," said Warren. "It may be impossible to come up with an explanation."

POINT-BLANK RANGE

The gunman shot one man in the head from a third-floor balcony and others at point-blank range, witnesses said. People said they hid in bathrooms and closets, some praying as dozens of shots echoed through the shopping centre.

"We're a family business," said Jim Von Maur, chief executive of the chain of 22 department stores. "This is just devastating."

Hawkins struggled with depression and had been in trouble at school and with the law, KETV reported. He also recently lost a job at a McDonald's fast-food restaurant, it said.

"He wanted to go out like a star," said Andrew Bigler, who described himself as a friend of Hawkins. "He had a rough life. He was a good guy. I loved him."

Jeff Schaffart, an attorney, was shot in the arm as he spent his lunch break shopping with his wife. He said he hid in a Von Maur women's bathroom, using his tie as a tourniquet to slow the bleeding.

"Finally after what seemed like an eternity ... the sheriff came in and was basically guarding the door with his shotgun," Schaffart said. "I was obviously very fortunate. A lot of people were not so fortunate today."

The Omaha rampage came eight months after Virginia Tech university became the site of the deadliest shooting spree in modern U.S. history when a student killed 32 people and then himself.

In October 2006, a milk truck driver tied up and shot 10 Amish schoolgirls in their classroom in Pennsylvania, killing five of them before turning the gun on himself.

In another infamous shooting, two teenagers killed 12 students and a teacher in April 1999 at their high school in Columbine, Colorado, before committing suicide.

President George W. Bush, who visited Omaha on Wednesday morning but had left the city hours before the gunman opened fire, was "deeply saddened by the shootings," the White House said in a statement.