Nine dead in US mall gun rampage
Pastor Dale Morgan
Nine dead in US mall gun rampage*
OMAHA, Nebraska (AFP) - - A gunman opened fire inside a Nebraska mall
Wednesday, killing at least eight people before turning the gun on
himself as panicked employees and Christmas shoppers ran for cover,
police said.
At least five other people were injured and taken to area hospitals
after the shooting inside the Westroads Mall in Omaha, Sergeant Teresa
Negron told a news conference.
"We have confirmed nine people that ... died from their injuries,"
Negron said. She said police believe the man acted alone.
Employees and shoppers fled the mall or locked themselves inside stores
after hearing dozens of shots from the upscale Von Maur department store.
"People were freaking," an employee at Whitehall jewelers, who refused
to give her name, told AFP by telephone.
The shooting took place as President George W. Bush headed back to
Washington after delivering a Republican fund-raising speech in Omaha.
The Nebraska incident was just the latest in a series of shootings in
the United States, where guns are prevalent on the streets.
Late last month two people were found dead in an apparent murder-suicide
at a Texas mall.
The woman was working at a store called Body Luxuries when she got a
phone call from her angry boyfriend who threatened to harm her, local
television station KHOU said.
The woman called mall security for help, but the boyfriend arrived
before they did and he took her hostage, pulling down the store's front
gate and barricading them inside.
There have also been a series of school shootings this year, with the
worse being the Virginia Tech massacre in April in which 32 people were
killed when a student of South Korean origin went on a campus rampage.
The Federal Bureau of Investigation reported in September that more than
1.4 million murders, rapes, robberies and assaults were committed around
the United States last year, or a violent crime every 22 seconds.
The number of victims of violent crime in the United States last year
was the equivalent of the entire population of European Union member
Estonia or the African state of Gabon falling victim to murder, rape,
robbery or assault.
The rate of violent crime was up by 1.9 percent compared with 2005, with
murders climbing by 1.8 percent to nearly 15,000 cases last year.