I have talked about this before: every police officer should carry at least one firearm off-duty. The reasons are plentiful, and on Wednesday, we saw another example of why I continue to push this point: mass murder.

In Omaha, Nebraska some nut-job decided to start killing innocent Christmas shoppers in the Westroads Mall. Initial reports indicate a 19 year old male carried a rifle into the the mall and began shooting shoppers and clerks. The incident ended only when the gunman turned his rifle on himself. In other words, the carnage would have continued, and dozens more would be dead, if he hadn’t committed suicide.

I assume Omaha PD responded with all due haste and implemented their active shooter plan. Even so, they arrived too late to stop the killing. As we saw in the Trolley Square shooting, one off-duty cop with one gun was able to stop the killing long enough for the on-duty officers to arrive on scene and dispatch the murderer.

There is no telling if an off-duty officer was in the area, or if they were in a position to respond. But if you are there, and you have no way to deal with the threat, you are just another casualty. You MUST be an active participant in your own survival.

The next shooter may not kill himself. The next shooter may be killing people where your family is shopping, or where your children are in school. Pray for the best, but be ready to do what you must.

Stay Safe!

19-year-old man kills eight and himself at Westroads Mall

A man dressed in camouflage and armed with a rifle opened fire among holiday shoppers in an Omaha department store Wednesday, killing eight people, wounding at least five others and sending hundreds into terrified panic.

The shooter - identified as Robert A. Hawkins, 19 - also died of a self-inflicted gunshot wound in what is believed to be the deadliest single shooting incident in the state’s history.

Hawkins was a student at Papillion- La Vista High School. He withdrew in March 2006, a district spokeswoman said.

Witnesses described horrific scenes at the Westroads Von Maur shortly before 2 p.m. in which the gunman opened fire at customers and workers in the third-floor customer service department. Others were shot on the second floor as they were looking up an escalator toward the chaos.

The shooter apparently took a gun to himself before officers reached him.

“The shots wouldn’t stop,” said Von Maur shopper Carol Padon, who described hearing 15 to 25 shots before fleeing the store.

Dozens of Omaha police, Douglas County Sheriff’s deputies, FBI agents sealed off and closed the mall, and rescue personnel were observed carrying multiple gurneys into the store. Police have not identified any of the victims.

The five wounded were being treated at the Creighton University and University of Nebraska medical centers, two of them in critical condition.

Shoppers leaving the mall near Von Maur were instructed to walk out with their hands over their heads, many of them hysterical and crying. Most of them were women.

Others anxiously waited outside the store. One woman said she was awaiting word of whether her mother was safe.

The shooter was said to be an 18- to 20-year-old white male with a military-style hair cut carrying a rifle, wearing a camouflage vest and wearing a black backpack. He was found dead in the customer service area of the store.

“The shooter is deceased and it appears to be a self-inflicted gunshot wound,” said Sgt. Teresa Negron, a police spokeswoman.

Police and rescue personnel set up a meeting point at a nearby hotel to meet with family members of the victims.

Von Maur released a statement that said, “We are deeply saddened by the horrific shooting at our Omaha store this afternoon. Our thoughts and prayers are with the victims of this tragic event as well as their families. We are cooperating fully with the Omaha and Nebraska state police departments.”

Roxanne Philip found herself at center of the initial shooting in her job at the customer service desk. When she heard gunshots, it was so close it sounded like it was right next to her. She said she took cover and was scared “because I thought I would be next.”

She said she never saw the shooter, but as she left the store she saw a woman on the other side of the customer service counter had been shot and appeared to be dead. She also believed her boss had been shot because she heard him moaning.

Chuck Wright said a co-worker who also worked in customer service described hearing the shooting break out and people running. The co-worker saw what appeared to be a customer who had been shot and heard a co-worker in customer service yelling for help.

Someone yelled, “Hold on, Fred, we’ll get to you.”

Another Wright co-worker described standing on the second floor near the escalator and looking up toward the commotion. She then saw a man with a gun lean over a rail from the third floor. He then shot in the head a man standing right next to her.

Wright said employees and customers were hiding wherever they could, in storerooms and other rooms off the shopping floor.

He was hiding in a storeroom with a co-worker when a police officer came up the escalator telling them to come out with their hands up. They ran toward the officers and were ushered out of the store.

A Von Maur employee who had left the store said one customer was shot while going down the escalator.

Padon said she was shopping on the second floor of the store in the men’s wear department when she heard what sounded like 15 to 25 shots. As she hid in a back room, Padon said, “I was so busy praying that it’s really hard to tell the details.”

She said police later arrived and escorted her from the store. As she was leaving, she said, she saw a man in his 40s on the floor with a serious gunshot wound. He did not appear to be breathing, she said.

Marvelene Sturgeon of Council Bluffs said she and her daughter were getting ready to leave the mall through Von Maur when the scene turned chaotic.

“People started running out of the door yelling, ‘They’re shooting, they have guns,’ and we heard a lot of shots,” the 73-year-old said.

Her daughter helped her run and they fled into the nearby J.C. Penney store. They were first told to exit the store, then they were told to run back in. The entrance from the mall into J.C. Penney was locked, and finally they were told to leave. A Von Maur employee helped them across the street to the offices of AAA.

The mall is closed and will not reopen until at least Friday.

Police said the call of an active shooting at the mall first came in at 1:42 p.m., and it took six minutes for the first officer to arrive at the scene. Police located a victim soon after entering the store.

At 2:12 p.m., officers located the apparent shooter dead from a gunshot wound.

The eight deaths appeared to make the shooting the deadliest in Nebraska history. In October 1975, Erwin Charles Simants shot and killed six members of a family in Sutherland. Charles Starkweather in 1958 killed nine Nebraskans in several separate incidents, and also killed a 10th victim before his capture in Wyoming.