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Mall Gunman Tried To Kill Himself 2 Years Earlier

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The Associated Press

Published: December 27, 2007

OMAHA, Neb. - The teen gunman who fatally shot eight people in a mall on Dec. 5 tried to kill himself by swallowing about 30 pills nearly two years earlier, according to court records released Wednesday.

Months later, Robert Hawkins left state care, with his father saying the boy "will have to stand or fall on his own."

A judge on Wednesday released case worker reports, a psychological evaluation and a letter to the court from Hawkins' father, Ron Hawkins. The judge also released 11 transcripts of Robert Hawkins' earlier court proceedings, adding detail to his troubled teen years.

The judge ordered the information released after motions were filed by several news organizations, including The Associated Press.

In one report, Robert Hawkins, who had been in and out of the juvenile justice system since he was 14, told a social worker he felt overwhelmed by court hearings and school. He told the social worker, Angela Pick, that he wanted to die when he took about 30 Tylenol pills in January 2006, she wrote in a report to Sarpy County Juvenile Court.

Nearly two years later, he went to the Von Maur store in Westroads Mall and killed eight people and himself with an AK-47 rifle.

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