[Peace-discuss] Robert Hawkins was Nineteen

[David Green]

Robert Hawkins Was Nineteen
by Hajja Romi

Robert Hawkins was 19 years old, some news reports say twenty. By most accounts, he was a troubled young man. He was quiet, and I guess you could say he was a loser. He got picked on a lot, several people have said.

Everybody also agrees that he had just lost his job. His parents had thrown him out of the house, and he had just broken up with his girlfriend.

A young man with few hopes, little to live for. 

Eight people are dead in a Nebraska mall. Robert shot them. Then, he turned the gun on himself and committed suicide.

Before I go any further, I want to say that I am truly sorry for him and the people he ruthlessly shot in cold blood, some at point blank range. He has caused grief that will never go away for the families of his victims, and for the city of Omaha.


Prior to Shooting, Mall Security Officers Noticed Gunman 06 Dec 2007 A troubled young man who opened fire in an Omaha shopping mall Wednesday had attracted the attention of mall security officers when he first entered the complex, but he carried out his shooting spree 'before they could react,' police said Thursday. The gunman, Robert A. Hawkins, 19, entered the Westroads Mall with an assault rifle concealed under a hooded sweatshirt, took an elevator to the third floor and began shooting shoppers and employees at random, Omaha Police Chief Thomas Warren told a news conference. He said Hawkins fired more than 30 rounds from an AK-47 assault rifle. ~ CLG

But I have yet to see a report that calls him a suicide killer.

I have seen interviews on the news with witnesses from the mall who were sobbing.

Obviously they were frightened, traumatized.

But nobody has called him a terrorist.

Nobody has said he was an American terrorist, although obviously he is an American and he terrorized.

Most likely he comes from a Christian background, but nobody has called him a Christian terrorist.

Yet, he has so many things in common with people we call terrorists who come from places far away from us.

He had lost everything. Just like peaceful farmers in Deir Yassin or hundreds of other villages in a land coveted by someone else.

He was picked on. Just refugees, forced to flee from one "host" country another.


A newsman on ABC interviewed the woman who took him in after his family had kicked him out. He was sympathetic to the woman, and never once condemned Robert Hawkins for terrorism. 

Never once blamed his upbringing or his culture for his actions. He was just a troubled young man.

A refugee who got kicked out of the house.


       
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