Mall workers recount watching deadly rampage

OMAHA, Neb. - Taking refuge from a gunman’s shooting spree that left nine people dead in a shopping mall, department store employee Jodi Longmeyer described the horrific scene unfolding before her eyes to a 911 dispatcher for nearly 30 minutes, she recounted Friday on the TODAY show.

“I didn’t know what to do, where to go, because I was shaking so badly,” she told TODAY host Ann Curry. “I was in shock, disbelief.”

Barricaded in the store’s security office with other people she herded to safety, Longmeyer watched security camera footage during the rampage — as well as people she recognized — until it ended.

“It looks like the gun is laying by customer service. It looks like he might have killed himself,” she told the 911 dispatcher in tapes released Thursday, the day after the tragedy. She broke into tears once she realized she was looking at Robert A. Hawkins’ body. “I can see him laying by the gun,” Longmeyer said.

Longmeyer, who is a human resources manager at Von Maur, told TODAY that she broke down at that moment.

WOWT-TV Robert Hawkins, 19, shown in a high school yearbook photo, opened fire Wednesday at an Omaha, Neb., department store.

“I think I was just at a point where I had seen more than I wanted to see,” she said.

She saw the gunman step off the mall elevator on the third floor. He was dressed in dark clothes. She saw his gun, watched him open fire.

Then she hit the floor.

“I just saw someone up here in the lockerroom and she’s got a lot of blood on the floor,” Longmeyer told the dispatcher.

Minutes later, shaking and scared, Longmeyer was able to get into a security room, where she described what she could see on live surveillance.

‘He should have gotten help’
Longmeyer’s account, one of more than a dozen 911 calls placed during Wednesday’s shooting, offered new details about what happened inside the shopping mall on Omaha’s west side.

Slide show Mall shooting View images from the scene and aftermath of a deadly rampage at a shopping mall in Nebraska. more photos

New details also surfaced about the gunman.

State officials said Hawkins spent four years in a series of treatment centers, group homes and foster care after threatening to kill his stepmother in 2002.

Finally, in August 2006, social workers, the courts and his father all agreed: It was time for Hawkins to be released — nine months before he turned 19 and would have been required to leave anyway.

The group homes and treatment centers were for youths with substance abuse, mental or behavioral problems. Altogether, the state spent about $265,000 on Hawkins, officials said.

The aftermath of Wednesday’s killings left some who knew Hawkins questioning if more should have been done.

“He should have gotten help, but I think he needed someone to help him and needed someone to be there when in the past he’s said he wanted to kill himself,” said Karissa Fox, who said she knew Hawkins through a friend. “Someone should have listened to him.”

‘A surprise to everyone’
Todd Landry, state director of children and family services, said court records do not show precisely why Hawkins was released. But he said if Hawkins should not have been set free, an official would have raised a red flag.

“It was not a failure of the system to provide appropriate services,” Landry said. “If that was an issue, any of the participants in the case would have brought that forward.”

Meanwhile, friends of the gunman described someone who didn’t fit the standard image of a mass killer.

“Robert was a very smart man. He could have done anything he wanted to,” one of his best friends, a 20-year-old man who asked to be identified only as Jason, told TODAY co-host Meredith Vieira. “He was real gentle, real kind with animals, real nice, real funny. I couldn’t really see him doing anything like this.”

“He’d never given us an indication of anything like that. He was too mild-mannered,” said another friend, Noah, 19, who also asked to be identified only by his first name. “This is a surprise to everyone.”

More from TODAY What is Meredith Vieira thankful for? | Holiday guide Sad development: The last Kodachrome film lab  Clickable video: Hottest tech gifts of 2009 Star quality? Get your guy on the TODAY show  It's down to the final four on 'Biggest Loser'

MORE FROM PEOPLE

People Section Front

Mom of boy set afire: ‘His courage is incredible’ Sad development: The last Kodachrome film lab Chef Paula Deen hit in face by charity ham   Jill Biden thanks military families   Suleman: ‘Octomom’ name is hilarious   Mumbai survivor Baby Moshe turns 3 Hero pilot Sully enjoys ‘rock star sex’   Husband, wife recall fiery plane crash   Shaniya's dad: ‘She touched a lot of people’   Is a British royal wedding in the works? People Section Front   Add People headlines to your news reader: