On December 5, 2007, 19-year-old Robert Hawkins shot and killed eight people and wounded five others in a Von Maur department store at Westroads Mall in Omaha, Nebraska, before committing suicide by shooting himself in the head.

[5] An hour before the rampage,[6] Hawkins' mother gave the Sarpy County Sheriff's Department his suicide note, which read in part: "I just want to take a few pieces of shit with me... just think tho, I'm gonna be fuckin famous [sic].

"[7][8] Surveillance footage showed that Hawkins, unarmed at first, entered the south entrance of the Von Maur department store at about 1:36 p.m. CST (19:36 UTC).

Returning six minutes later through the same entrance, he proceeded directly to the elevator to his right, this time with a Century WASR-10 (a commercial copy of the AKM (7.62×39mm) semi-automatic rifle)[1][9] stolen from his stepfather's house, along with two 30-round magazines taped together,[10] concealed in a sweatshirt.

Audio tapes and transcripts of the 911 calls, along with images captured by mall security surveillance cameras, were released by the police on December 7, 2007.

The other critically wounded victim was customer service employee Micheale "Mickey" Oldham, 65, who was sent to Creighton University Medical Center.

The Omaha Police Department announced on December 22, 2007, that Mandy Hyda, 34, received a bruise when a bullet fragment struck her left leg.

In late 2006, he became estranged from his parents and chose to live with two friends and their mother in a home in the Quail Creek Neighborhood[20] of Bellevue, a suburb 10 miles (16 km) south of Omaha.

[20] In late November, 2007, Hawkins threatened to kill a local teenager's family and burn her house down because he thought she had stolen his CD player.

[35] In the days following the tragedy, the Von Maur store was thronged on all sides by flowers and signs expressing condolences, and makeshift memorials to the victims.

[39] Dutch DJ and producer Angerfist sampled an excerpt from a news story about the shooting on his track "The Road to Fame" on the Retaliate album, released in 2011.

[40] Omaha political punk band Desaparecidos wrote a song about the shooting, "Von Maur Massacre," on their 2015 album Payola.

[41] The Von Maur corporate headquarters in Davenport, Iowa issued a statement saying, "We are deeply saddened by the horrific shooting at our Omaha store this afternoon.