More on the Omaha mall shooter
She told the Omaha World-Herald that the night before the shooting, Hawkins and her sons showed her an SKS semiautomatic Russian military rifle — the same type used in the shooting. She said she thought the gun belonged to a member of Hawkins’ family. She said she didn’t think much of it — the gun looked too old to work.
Not an AK, as reported over and over and over after the story first broke. And it’s not a weapon that was covered by the assault weapons ban. Up next:
Records in Sarpy and Washington counties showed Hawkins had a felony drug conviction and several misdemeanor cases filed against him, including an arrest 11 days before the shooting for having alcohol as a minor. He was due in court in two weeks.
So, the shooter was a prohibited person also?
December 6th, 2007 at 1:13 pm
FWIW, the first report of the story I saw, yesterday evening, identified the gun as an “SKS assault rifle.”
December 6th, 2007 at 1:16 pm
Guys, it’s a high-powered assault rifle. Didn’t you hear the news?
December 6th, 2007 at 1:17 pm
Actually still being reported by CNN.
Apparently they weren’t getting enough google hits w/ SKS. So they changed it to this:
“Warren said Hawkins’ body and the AK-47 with SKS 7.66 mm ammunition were found on the store’s third floor.”
December 6th, 2007 at 3:54 pm
More for the “All AK-47, all the time” CNN files. You’d think CNN and AP would bother to get their facts right, but eh… “professional journalists” and all that.
From http://www.cnn.com/2007/US/12/06/mall.shooting/index.html
Mall security officers noticed Robert A. Hawkins, 19, of Bellevue, Nebraska, briefly enter the Von Maur department store at Omaha’s Westroads Mall, Chief Thomas Warren said.
Hawkins left the store and returned six minutes later concealing something — presumably the AK-47 assault rifle used in the rampage — under a hooded sweatshirt, Warren said
December 7th, 2007 at 6:24 am
Sounds like a rather large hoody.