Shoppers, workers return as store opens after shootings
Posted: Thursday, December 20, 2007
OMAHA, Neb. (AP) -- A crowd of holiday shoppers and others who came to grieve gathered Thursday as the department store where a gunman killed eight people opened its doors for the first time since the shootings 15 days earlier.
About 50 Van Maur store employees held hands and lined up across the entrance before they parted to let the crowd pass. Eight wreaths were placed near the entrance, memorializing the eight people slain by 19-year-old Robert Hawkins on Dec. 5.
A blue ribbon crossed each wreath and carried a message: "We remember."
Mary Lu Courtney, 75, said she was headed to the store's third floor, where Hawkins shot most of his victims, to shop for her 22 grandchildren.
"I couldn't live without this store," she said.
Von Maur President Jim von Maur said the company expected nearly all of its employees to return to their jobs in the store at the Westroads Mall. Armed Omaha police in uniform and plainclothes walked throughout the store on Thursday along with unarmed security guards. There would be more security in the future but no physical changes to the store's third floor, von Maur said.
The Rev. Harry Buse of St. Leo Catholic Church in Omaha led a prayer before the opening, saying, "May this store again be not only a place of commerce but a place of giving."
Von Maur is planning a permanent memorial to the victims of the shooting but has not decided what form it will take. The department store, which paid its workers during the closure, has made counseling available to them.
Inside the store, employees greeted customers at the entrances, while many customers immediately took escalators to the store's third floor, to Christmas ornaments and children's clothing.
"We always think about the victims and their families," said Pamela Perry, 39. "But I'm not scared to go in the store."
Some customers lined up at cashiers to buy goods and talk to workers, others looked down from the central balcony in silence. Some spoke to each other and on the phone about returning to the site of the shootings.
One cashier on the second floor told a line of customers that she was glad to smile again after thinking she would be unable to do so for a long time.
Von Maur officials asked reporters not to speak with store employees.
Fred Wilson, 61, the longtime manager of the customer service department at Von Maur, said he looks forward to returning to work once his injuries are healed.
He was released from the hospital on Thursday and was going to a rehabilitation center, hospital officials said.
Wilson was shot from behind in his right arm, the bullet severing an artery and causing severe blood loss. Another bullet, or possibly shrapnel from the first one, struck his left hand.
Doctors are unsure whether Wilson will regain full use of his arm, but he said Wednesday at a news conference that "not a day goes by that I don't feel one lucky man."
Micky Oldham, another Von Maur employee who was wounded by Hawkins, was in fair condition Thursday at Creighton University Medical Center. The 65-year-old Omaha woman was shot in the back and abdomen.
The third victim, a shopper, was treated and released the day of the shooting.
On the Net:
Westroads Mall: http://www.westroadsmall.com
Von Maur: http://www.vonmaur.com
About 50 Van Maur store employees held hands and lined up across the entrance before they parted to let the crowd pass. Eight wreaths were placed near the entrance, memorializing the eight people slain by 19-year-old Robert Hawkins on Dec. 5.
A blue ribbon crossed each wreath and carried a message: "We remember."
Mary Lu Courtney, 75, said she was headed to the store's third floor, where Hawkins shot most of his victims, to shop for her 22 grandchildren.
"I couldn't live without this store," she said.
Von Maur President Jim von Maur said the company expected nearly all of its employees to return to their jobs in the store at the Westroads Mall. Armed Omaha police in uniform and plainclothes walked throughout the store on Thursday along with unarmed security guards. There would be more security in the future but no physical changes to the store's third floor, von Maur said.
The Rev. Harry Buse of St. Leo Catholic Church in Omaha led a prayer before the opening, saying, "May this store again be not only a place of commerce but a place of giving."
Von Maur is planning a permanent memorial to the victims of the shooting but has not decided what form it will take. The department store, which paid its workers during the closure, has made counseling available to them.
Inside the store, employees greeted customers at the entrances, while many customers immediately took escalators to the store's third floor, to Christmas ornaments and children's clothing.
"We always think about the victims and their families," said Pamela Perry, 39. "But I'm not scared to go in the store."
Some customers lined up at cashiers to buy goods and talk to workers, others looked down from the central balcony in silence. Some spoke to each other and on the phone about returning to the site of the shootings.
One cashier on the second floor told a line of customers that she was glad to smile again after thinking she would be unable to do so for a long time.
Von Maur officials asked reporters not to speak with store employees.
Fred Wilson, 61, the longtime manager of the customer service department at Von Maur, said he looks forward to returning to work once his injuries are healed.
He was released from the hospital on Thursday and was going to a rehabilitation center, hospital officials said.
Wilson was shot from behind in his right arm, the bullet severing an artery and causing severe blood loss. Another bullet, or possibly shrapnel from the first one, struck his left hand.
Doctors are unsure whether Wilson will regain full use of his arm, but he said Wednesday at a news conference that "not a day goes by that I don't feel one lucky man."
Micky Oldham, another Von Maur employee who was wounded by Hawkins, was in fair condition Thursday at Creighton University Medical Center. The 65-year-old Omaha woman was shot in the back and abdomen.
The third victim, a shopper, was treated and released the day of the shooting.
On the Net:
Westroads Mall: http://www.westroadsmall.com
Von Maur: http://www.vonmaur.com
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S. Banks wrote on Dec 21, 2007 1:45 PM: