Published Thursday | December 6, 2007In the end, Hawkins made good on threatsBY KARYN SPENCER | WORLD-HERALD STAFF WRITERMall gunman Robbie Hawkins had threatened to kill people as long as five years ago and as recently as two weeks ago.
The day after he turned 14, Hawkins was sent to a group home after threatening to kill his stepmother, court records show.
Two weeks ago, he threatened to kill a 16-year-old girl and her family after accusing her of stealing things from his car, the girl said today.
"He said, 'I'm going to kill you, I am going to kill your family and I'm going to burn your house down,'" she said.
The girl, a neighbor, shrugged off the threat because Hawkins was known for "shooting his mouth off."
"I never really thought that he would follow through with something like this," she said.
Interviews and court records from Sarpy and Washington County courts detail the troubled childhood of the 19-year-old responsible for Wednesday's killing spree at the Westroads Mall.
Hawkins was a foster child through Sarpy County Juvenile Court for about four years. Judge Robert O'Neal handled the case.
Hawkins was in the custody of his father, Ronald, in LaVista, when he became a foster child in 2002. Hawkins' parents divorced when he was 3.
Hawkins had been hospitalized twice for psychiatric problems before being admitted on May 18, 2002, to Piney Ridge Center in Waynesville, Mo., for "homicidal threats he made to his stepmother."
At the time, he had been diagnosed with an unspecified mood disorder — a term often used when problems have been identified but a specific diagnosis such as bipolar disorder or depression hasn't been developed.
Hawkins' diagnosis also included attention deficit disorder and oppositional defiant disorder, which is a persistent pattern of defying authority.
Four months later, he was made a state ward because his health insurance would not pay to continue his care. The center's staff said he should not be released.
He stayed at the Missouri facility for at least another month before moving to group homes, including several Cooper Village facilities, and at least one foster home in Omaha.
In 2003, while living at Cooper Village, Hawkins told police that his roommate grabbed his crotch and offered to perform oral sex on him. Another time, the roommate punched him several times, he said.
The roommate was arrested on suspicion of misdemeanor assault and sexual misconduct but was never charged.
Hawkins later lived with foster mother Marty Glass in her home near the Douglas-Washington County line.
Her son, Ben Glass, 31, remembered Hawkins as an average kid who enjoyed video games. "He was a quiet kid," Ben Glass said.
While in foster care, Hawkins got into legal trouble.
Hawkins was charged in Sarpy County Juvenile Court with third-degree assault in connection with an October 2003 fight at Papillion-La Vista High School and with unlawful tobacco use by a minor at the school in September 2004.
He was ordered to serve 50 hours of community service.
He got into trouble several times in Washington County in 2005 when he lived with Glass.
Hawkins was charged in March 2005 with possession of marijuana with intent to deliver. The case was sent to Sarpy County to handle along with the pending foster-care case.
Judge O'Neal ordered Hawkins to abstain from alcohol and drugs; complete chemical dependency and mental health treatment through a day treatment program at Cooper Village; and attend Alcoholics or Narcotics Anonymous nce a week.
Hawkins was ticketed Oct. 7, 2005, for disorderly conduct after getting in a fight near the school in Fort Calhoun. He later was arrested for not paying the $100 fine.
He later was charged with possession of marijuana with intent to deliver and two counts of contributing to the delinquency of minors, ages 12 and 14, on Oct. 24, 2005. Those charges later were dismissed.
In March 2006, Hawkins dropped out of Papillion-La Vista High School, Principal Jim Glover said.
Hawkins was disciplined for skipping classes but never showed anger toward the staff or students, Glover said. "He was pretty low-key, laid-back," he said.
Soon after Hawkins dropped out, the judge ordered him to get his GED and work 20 hours a week. A friend said Hawkins got his GED.
Hawkins' mother, Maribel Rodriguez, sought visits with her son in July 2005. She had not had contact with him for 2 1/2 years.
The juvenile court's jurisdiction ended in August 2006.
Earlier this year, Hawkins' father asked for help from neighbor John Hubbard, a captain with the Douglas County Department of Corrections. Ronald Hawkins asked if Hubbard would take the youth on a tour of the jail to help set him straight.
Hubbard said the jail has a policy against such tours.
Just after Hawkins' court cases ended last year, he moved in with his friend Will's family in the Quail Creek subdivision in Bellevue, said Will's mother, Debora Maruca. She said Hawkins had been hopping between friends' homes.
"He was like a lost pound puppy nobody wanted," she said.
The night before the shooting, Hawkins and her sons showed Maruca an AK-47-style rifle. Previous reports from police and Maruca identified the gun as an SKS semiautomatic military rifle.
She didn't think much of it — it looked too old to work. The boys liked to target- and skeet-shoot at her family's cabin.
Hawkins took the weapon to the mall Wednesday afternoon.
"I think, 'Why didn't I do something?" Maruca said. "What could I have done?'"
During his first few months with the family, Hawkins seemed nervous and withdrawn, sometimes curling into a fetal position.
He was mannerly, expressing appreciation and asking how her day had been.
"We were eating like vultures," she said, "and he's saying, 'Please pass this,' and thanking me for every meal.'"
She thought his life had started to come together.
Hawkins was earning about $800 a month working at this nearby McDonald's.Hawkins was earning about $800 a month working at a nearby McDonald's restaurant and had started to pay rent.
He had gotten his driver's license in July, and on Nov. 28 he registered a 1995 green Jeep Grand Cherokee Laredo.
"I really thought he was doing better," Maruca said. "He had a little spark in his eye."
Then in the past two weeks, Hawkins broke up with his girlfriend.
He was ticketed Nov. 24 in Sarpy County on suspicion of contributing to the delinquency of a minor and two alcohol charges.
About 1 p.m. Wednesday, an upset Hawkins called Maruca's son, and Maruca got on the line.
Hawkins thanked the family members for everything they had done for him. He said the family wouldn't have to worry about him any more.
She asked if he had been fired. He said he had.
He said he had been accused of stealing $17 from his till. McDonald's management has declined to comment about his employment.
They told him, Robbie, it's not that bad. Just come home. It'll be OK, Maruca said.
"He must have felt like everything he touched turned to crap," she said.
After the call, they checked his bedroom and found his note, which said things like, "I'm a piece of shit, but I'm going to be famous now."
They had gotten a call like this from him once before and worried he was going to commit suicide. They didn't think he would hurt anyone else.
Maruca's son Will went looking for Hawkins. Maruca called Hawkins' mother, who picked up the note and took it to the Sarpy County Sheriff's Office.
Maruca, not knowing what else to do, went to work. She is a nurse at the Nebraska Medical Center.
There she heard news reports of the mall shooting.
"I just got this sick feeling," she said. "I thought, 'Oh, my God, I hope this is not Robbie.'"
When Hawkins' mother arrived at the Sheriff's Office, she did not know about the mall shooting that had occurred about 30 minutes earlier, Capt. Rolly Yost said.
Twenty to 40 minutes before the shooting, an ex-girlfriend of Hawkins received a text message from him describing his plan, according to a 16-year-old girl who had been threatened in the past.
"He said that he wanted to die," she said. "'I just want to shoot a whole lot of people at the mall and kill myself.'"
Maruca said she had no idea why Hawkins picked Von Maur.
"They're completely innocent victims," she said of those he shot. "He had no connection."
Wednesday night, authorities searched the homes of Maruca and Hawkins' mother in Bellevue for evidence and possible explanations.
Among the news media trucks and split-level homes in her hilly subdivision, Maruca and a woman hugged and sobbed.
"That was Robbie," she said.
"I can't believe it," they kept telling each other.
"I can't f-ing believe it."
World-Herald staff writers Leia Baez, Christopher Burbach, Kevin Cole, John Ferak, Nancy Gaarder, Cindy Gonzalez, Paul Hammel, Jeffrey Robb, Michaela Saunders and Tom Shaw contributed to this report.
