Mall Shooter Was Depressed, Seemed 'Gentle'

Robert Hawkins—who killed 8 people and himself at an Omaha mall yesterday—had been treated for depression, and had prior arrests for drug possession and disorderly conduct. But the woman who took him in, after he had a falling out with his family, thought he was getting better, and considered him benign. He showed her an SKS semiautomatic rifle the night before his attack, Debora Maruca-Kovac told the Omaha World-Herald, but she thought little of it.

Hawkins called Maruca-Kovacat about 1pm yesterday, telling her he'd been fired from McDonalds, and drawing her attention to the note he left.  When she tried to get him to explain, he said, "It’s too late," and hung up, she told CNN. In the note, Hawkins wrote that he was sorry for the trouble he'd caused his family. “Now I’ll be famous,” he wrote.  (More Robert Hawkins stories.)