19 year old Robert Hawkins has been named as the shooter in Omaha, Nebraska, mall where he killed 8 people and later shot himself. Hawkins had been in trouble with the law just last month on two misdemeanor counts.

His mother stated that Hawkins gave her a note before leaving for the Westroads Mall that “could be interpreted as suicidal.” In the note, Hawkins wrote he wanted to “go out in style” and was “going to go out and be famous”.

Jennifer Kramer, a witness who talked to Omaha television station KETV, said she heard 35-40 shots fired and “hoped God would spare them”.

No motive has been given for the shooting.

A man opened fire with a rifle at a busy department store Wednesday, killing eight people before taking his own life, in an attack that made holiday shoppers run screaming through a mall and barricade themselves in dressing rooms. Five more people were wounded, two critically.

The gunman left a suicide note that was found at his home by relatives, said a law enforcement official who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak publicly about the shooting. Omaha television station KETV reported that the note said he wanted to “go out in style.”

Witnesses said the gunman fired down on shoppers from a third-floor balcony of the Von Maur store.

The gunman was found dead on the third floor with a self-inflicted gunshot wound, and his victims were discovered on the second and third floors, police said.

“My knees rocked. I didn’t know what to do, so I just ran with everybody else,” said Kevin Kleine, 29, who was shopping with her 4-year-old daughter at the Westroads Mall, in a prosperous neighborhood on the city’s west side. She said she hid in a dressing room with four other shoppers and an employee.
“Everybody was scared, and we didn’t know what was going on,” said Belene Esaw-Kagbara, 31, a Von Maur employee. “We didn’t know
what to do. I was praying that God protect us.”

Mickey Vickory, who worked at Von Maur’s third-floor service department, said she heard shots at about 1:50 p.m.

She and her co-workers and customers went into a back closet behind the wrapping room to hide, then emerged about a half-hour later when police shouted to come out with their hands up. As police took them to another part of the mall for safety, they saw the victims.

“We saw the bodies and we saw the blood,” she said.

Sgt. Teresa Negron said the gunman killed eight people, then apparently killed himself. His name was not immediately released, and authorities gave no motive for the attack and did not know whether he said anything during the rampage.

Police received a 911 call from someone inside the mall, and shots could be heard in the background, Negron said. By the time officers arrived six minutes later, the shooting was over, she said.

Keith Fidler, another Von Maur employee, said he heard a burst of five to six shots followed by 15 to 20 more rounds. Fidler said he huddled in the corner of the men’s clothing department with about a dozen other employees until police yelled to get out of the store.

A witness, Shawn Vidlak, said the shots sounded like a nail gun. At first he thought it was noise from construction work at the mall.

“People started screaming about gunshots,” Vidlak said. “I grabbed my wife and kids we got out of there as fast as we could.”

Shortly after the shooting, which came three weeks before Christmas, a group of shoppers came out of the building with their hands raised. Some were still holding shopping bags.

Police told people to park their cars at businesses across from the mall and to wait for their loved ones, then directed them to an Omaha hotel to await information.

President Bush was in Omaha on Wednesday for a fundraiser, but left about an hour before the shooting.

The sprawling, three-level mall has more than 135 stores and restaurants. It gets 14.5 million visitors every year, according to its Web site.

It was the second mass shooting at a mall this year. In February, nine people were shot, five of them fatally, at Trolley Square mall in Salt Lake City. The gunman, 18-year-old Sulejman Talovic, was shot and killed by police.

December 5 is International Day of the Ninja. On this day, “nonja” are encouraged to dress as ninja, engage in ninja-related activities and spread information about ninja online. The creators of Ninja Burger, a Web site dating back to 1999, chose December 5 for the holiday because December 5, 2003 marked the release of the Tom Cruise film The Last Samurai, which featured a scene where samurai battled ninja. The focus has shifted since then towards the more familiar Pirates versus Ninjas conflict, and the December 5 holiday is a counterpoint to International Talk Like a Pirate Day.

Happy Ninja Day!

General Electric Co is recalling 92,000 microwave ovens because they pose a fire hazard, the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission said on Wednesday.

The agency said the ovens in question were sold at department and appliance stores from January 2000 to December 2003 under the GE and GE Profile brands, as well as the Kenmore brand of Sears Holdings Corp.

The recall will have no material effect on the financial results of the second-largest U.S. company by market capitalization, GE spokesman Russell Wilkerson said in an e-mail.

“The priority is always to solve the issue for our customers,” he said. “The cost of the recall is immaterial.”

GE knew of more than 30 cases of property damage, but no injuries related to the problem, the safety commission said.

The units in question, which retailed for $1,500 to $2,000, feature a traditional thermal oven below a microwave in a design that can be embedded in a wall, a picture on the safety commission’s Web site showed. The agency said consumers could safely continue to use the lower thermal oven.

GE and Sears are offering owners of the affected ovens a free repair, a $300 rebate toward the purchase of a new GE or Kenmore brand unit, or a $600 rebate toward the purchase of a new GE Profile brand unit.

Consumers who own the microwaves in question can contact GE at (888) 240-2745 or Sears at (888) 679-0282.

In May, GE announced a recall of 2.5 million built-in dishwashers because of a fire hazard.

GE’s industrial unit makes consumer products including appliances and light bulbs. It is GE’s smallest unit as measured by segment profits, accounting for about 7 percent of GE’s profit through the first nine months of the year.