Friends and family members mourned the loss of loved ones as funeral services and vigils began over the weekend for the victims of the Omaha, Neb., shooting.
Janet Jorgensen, 67, was planning the wedding for one of her granddaughters and had helped her husband of 50 years fight cancer before she was fatally shot on Wednesday by a teenage gunman at Westroads Mall. Her funeral was held Sunday.
Jorgensen was an employee at Von Maur department store where 19-year-old Robert A. Hawkins of Bellvue, Neb., opened fire, killing eight people before taking his own life. It was the second mall shooting this year in the United States.
Separate visitations were held Sunday for store employees Gary Joy, 56, and Dianne Trent, 53.
"What happened at the Westroads Mall last Wednesday happened to each and every one of us," the Rev. Bert Thelen of St. John's Parish at Creighton University said in his sermon on Sunday, according to The Associated Press.
Hundreds of parishioners remembered the victims with candles labeled with the victims' names lit at the front of the sanctuary. A funeral service for John McDonald, who was shopping at the department store, was to be held at St. John's on Monday.
The popular Omaha mall reopened Saturday while the Von Maur store itself remained closed. Its reopening day is undetermined. Shoppers, however, didn't have the same holiday cheer as they walked through the mall.
"It doesn't feel like a Christmas feeling," said John Andrews who went to the mall to buy Christmas presents, according to AP.
A makeshift memorial was placed at the entrance of the mall where some grieved what is reported to be the worst shooting in Nebraska's history.
"I think it's important that we show the solidarity that we're all here for both the employees and the customers," Mayor Mike Fahey told CNN.
Surveillance footage released by the Omaha Police Department on Friday showed Hawkins entering the Von Maur store and then leaving on the day of the shooting. He was captured again by a surveillance camera about six minutes later re-entering, clutching his midsection as if hiding something, and then stalking toward elevators.
Neighbors described Hawkins as a quiet teen who didn't cause trouble. But recent reports have indicated the shooting did not come without warning signs.
Hawkins had gone through five years of juvenile-services programs since he was 13 and was charged with making homicidal threats toward his stepmother.
As a ward of the State of Nebraska, he received extensive care at Cooper Village, a residential treatment facility for teenagers, from 2003 to 2005. He was diagnosed with depression, attention deficit disorder, impulsiveness, hyperactivity, and a disorder characterized by negativity and hostility toward authority figures.
“He was in good facilities,” said Sandra K. Markley, Sarpy County’s lead juvenile prosecutor, according to The New York Times. “He had good supervision. It didn’t all go perfectly, of course. But we deal with a lot of troubled children, and, as far as we could tell, he was no more troubled than many of them.”
Todd Landry, director of children and family programs for the Department of Health and Human Services, said Thursday that "all appropriate services were provided when needed and as long as needed."
Hawkins had been removed from his home for the sake of his stepmother's safety. His father "tried hard" and participated in family therapy sessions, Markley said.
Hawkins also had an alcohol and marijuana problem.
By August 2006, the state terminated its custody of Hawkins, saying “the child is nonamenable to further services," according to The New York Times. Officials said he had refused to participate in drug treatment.
"There was really nothing more that we could offer him that he was willing to participate in," said Markley.
Hawkins’ family released a statement to AP through the Rev. Mark Miller of Faith Presbyterian Church in La Vista in which they said they hope the community can heal. Services had not yet been arranged for Hawkins.
"Our community of Nebraska has been confronted with an unspeakable terror," said the Rev. David L. deFreese, bishop of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA) Nebraska Synod, Omaha, in a statement. "One of our children, so desperate and despondent, chose death as his response to the pain of living, and (he) also chose to afflict so many others with murderous agony. The horrific events overwhelm us with their senselessness and frightfulness."
Offering words of hope, the Lutheran bishop said, "We move forward with purpose. Death and evil do not have the final word. God does."
Comments
Part two
The system to help is broken. It is a matter of money and votes, and these people do not have any money or votes, nor are they represented by anyone that cares enough. Perhaps if there was a profit in caring for the people with mental health issues, this could be fixed. Just the stigma of the mental health label has people turning away and not wanting to do something. Again our candidates are ignoring the issue. The people we elect to fix this see no reason to tackle this because there are few votes from this group. Again perhaps some of your readers will have some thoughts on getting the elected officials to put a workable program in place. Sorry I lost it for a second thinking elected officials will actually do something other than posture to get re-elected.
This killer reflect a bigger issue with how we deal with, or hide from the mental health issues in our Country & State. This is not about guns or God, the lack of a God, it’s about the mentally ill. We saw it in the Hillary bomb threat last week, the Colorado Church shootings and the Virginia Tech campus shootings. On and on these events go and treatment for mental health is not even a Presidential campaign issue. Perhaps some of your readers have some thoughts on how to solve or at least get help to these people since our Political leadership is clueless in this area. In California the mental health care system went away in the 80's during Republican budget cuts, combined with the Democrats protecting privacy issues. Now people with mental health issues cannot get assistance. Many other states have cut there mental health programs or never had them. In California the police can pick people up (it’s called 5150), and hold them for 72 hours, but they are often out of custody without getting any help, before the officer can finish the paperwork. Because of privacy rules when someone is 5150'd even family members cannot get information nor suggest further treatment during the 72 hour hold time. Can you imagine there are people that have been 5150’d hundreds of times over a 10 year period and never received help?
This time the mentally ill intruded into people lives and ended them, and perhaps will bring the issue of the mentally ill out for a few minutes only to be shoved aside by more important things like Paris Hilton claiming to read the bible, or reports of Britney Spears running a stop sign. If you think it's a leap to say homelessness and mental health go hand in hand it's not. True not all of the homeless have mental issues but one needs only to look at your local homeless scene to know mental health plays a huge role.
The homeless are a fact of life throughout the state and nation. Few people realize how many live among us. Just walk along the edge of your local park’s trails, along creeks and look under the bridges. Look for well worn foot paths that lead to hidden encampments. The area often has abandoned shopping carts and disassembled bikes (read probably parts of stolen bikes from the area) which are a pretty good indication of the presence of the homeless. Often you will hear the voices of the homeless from these areas.