Active Shooter Incidence

When the media reports an act of mall violence, the image that comes to the viewer’s mind is that of a lone gunman running through the mall and firing weapons into the shoppers and staff. Law enforcement refers to this type of situation as Active Shooter Incidence (ASI). This is a scenario where the shooter has chosen the mall as a target zone, intends to commit their violent act within the confine of the mall, and are prepared to die either through suicide or death-by-cop. The term “Active Shooter Incidence” made it into the American vocabulary after the horrific Columbine High School massacre. On April 20, 1999, two teenagers Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold carried out deadliest high school shooting on American soil using pistols, shotguns, rifles and homemade explosives. Their murder-suicide rampage left 15 dead, 24 injured, and a nation in shock . Even though the Columbine type of school shooting has became more numerous since, American history has less experience with an ASI in the mall on the same scale as Columbine.

On Memorial Day, 1972, Harvey McLeod hid between cars parked in the North Hills Mall parking lot and fired his .22 caliber rifle into mall patrons just as U.S. Senator B. Everett Jordan was campaigning inside the mall. After McLeod had killed three people and wounded eight, he turned his rifle on himself and died from the wound. At first, the police thought the killing was an attempt on Senator Jordan’s life but later determine Harvey McLeod’s act was random violence .

At 11am, March 27, 2009, at the Moreno Valley Mall near the University of California, Riverside, a man in a ski mask walked through the mall and shot four people with a pellet gun.  The shooter escaped through an emergency exit and was not immediately apprehended. Of the four people he shot, two were employees at a retail kiosk and two were customers. The gunman’s pellet bruised all four victims but none suffered serious injuries. The shooter remains at large even as of today.

Active Shooter Incidence

When the media reports an act of mall violence, the image that comes to the viewer’s mind is that of a lone gunman running through the mall and firing weapons into the shoppers and staff. Law enforcement refers to this type of situation as Active Shooter Incidence (ASI). This is a scenario where the shooter has chosen the mall as a target zone, intends to commit their violent act within the confine of the mall, and are prepared to die either through suicide or death-by-cop. The term “Active Shooter Incidence” made it into the American vocabulary after the horrific Columbine High School massacre. On April 20, 1999, two teenagers Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold carried out deadliest high school shooting on American soil using pistols, shotguns, rifles and homemade explosives. Their murder-suicide rampage left 15 dead, 24 injured, and a nation in shock . Even though the Columbine type of school shooting has became more numerous since, American history has less experience with an ASI in the mall on the same scale as Columbine.

On Memorial Day, 1972, Harvey McLeod hid between cars parked in the North Hills Mall parking lot and fired his .22 caliber rifle into mall patrons just as U.S. Senator B. Everett Jordan was campaigning inside the mall. After McLeod had killed three people and wounded eight, he turned his rifle on himself and died from the wound. At first, the police thought the killing was an attempt on Senator Jordan’s life but later determine Harvey McLeod’s act was random violence .

At 11am, March 27, 2009, at the Moreno Valley Mall near the University of California, Riverside, a man in a ski mask walked through the mall and shot four people with a pellet gun.  The shooter escaped through an emergency exit and was not immediately apprehended. Of the four people he shot, two were employees at a retail kiosk and two were customers. The gunman’s pellet bruised all four victims but none suffered serious injuries. The shooter remains at large even as of today.

Investigators created a profile of Robert Hawkins and found a stereotypical lone shooter. Robert Hawkins had a lifelong struggle with psychiatric problem ever since the age of six. He was sent to a mental institution for four years at the age of fourteen, during which time he was made a ward of the state of Omaha. He also had juvenile conviction for felony drug conviction, ticket for underage alcohol possession, and the investor found a history of marijuana usage. What triggered Robert Hawkins’s rampage appears to be losing his job at McDonald for reportedly stealing seventeen dollars, separation from his girlfriend two weeks prior to the shooting, and his upcoming court appearance for underage possession of alcohol.

(To Be Continued…)