The man who was fatally shot by police after entering a Target store in Omaha, Nebraska, armed with an AR-15-style rifle had obtained the weapon just four days earlier at a Cabela’s sporting goods store, police said on Wednesday. No one else was injured.
Court records show the man, identified by police as Joseph Jones, 32, of suburban Omaha, had no criminal record in Douglas County, where Omaha is located. He also had no documented prior contact with city police, records show.
He entered the store around noon Tuesday, where police said he fired several rounds, causing shoppers and workers to rush out and cower in bathrooms. Along with the rifle, she had 13 rifle magazines loaded with ammunition.
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Jones’ uncle, Larry Derksen Jr., said his nephew had schizophrenia and his mental illness left him isolated.
“My nephew walked into Target. I don’t think he meant to hurt anybody. He fired a bunch of bullets,” Derksen told KETV-TV. “He had an AR-15 before law enforcement arrived. If he had any intention of killing someone, he would have done it. He would have had time to do it.”
Mental health experts say that most people with mental illness are not violent. They are far more likely to be victims of violent crime than perpetrators, and access to firearms is a big part of the problem.
Derksen told KETV that “this was predictable” and that his nephew should never have had a gun.
A Nebraska gunman who opened fire inside an Omaha Target before being killed by police reportedly purchased the firearm used just four days before the incident.
(Chris Machian/Omaha World-Herald via AP)
Callers inundated 911 dispatchers with about 30 calls for help, and Omaha police officers and a Nebraska state trooper rushed to the scene. They quickly met up with Jones and ordered him to drop the rifle.
Police said Officer Brian Vanderheiden, a 20-year veteran of the city’s police force, shot, struck and killed Jones. The statement said Vanderheiden was placed on paid administrative leave per department policy.
Police have yet to release a timeline showing how long Jones was in the store before officers responded, but Omaha police Lt. Neal Bonacci said they are working on one.
After the shooting, officers searched the store three times before declaring the scene safe, according to police. Through investigation, officers found bullet casings inside the store.
Cabela’s did not immediately respond to emails from The Associated Press seeking comment.
Bonacci said police are speaking with the family as they search for a motive. But he added: “I don’t know if we’ll ever necessarily know.”
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Several other shootings have taken place in stores across the country in recent months, at a time when mass shootings have drawn public attention with disturbing frequency.
In January, a woman was injured in a shooting at a Walmart store in Evansville, Indiana. Police said it could have been much worse if it weren’t for the heroic actions of an employee and police. Officers arrived within minutes and fatally shot the gunman. A Walmart manager in Chesapeake, Virginia, killed six people in November when he began wild shooting inside a break room. Six others were injured. The gunman shot and killed himself before officers arrived.
In Buffalo, New York, an 18-year-old man fatally shot 10 people and wounded three others last May after searching a grocery store in a predominantly black neighborhood. Authorities immediately called it a hate crime.
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The Omaha shooting came just over 15 years after the deadly December 2007 shooting at an Omaha Von Maur department store, when a 19-year-old gunman killed eight people and himself.
