By ERIC OLSON, Associated Press Writer 1 hour, 3 minutes ago
美联社记者埃里克奥尔森 文
宋德利 译
BELLEVUE, Neb. - A high school dropout with a criminal past, Robert A. Hawkins had struggled to overcome depression. But friends thought he was making strides.
Then, about two weeks ago, he lost his girlfriend. A week later, it was his job. His friends worried he would regress.
后来,大约两个星期前,他失去了女友。一个星期后,又失去了工作。他的朋友都担心他会倒退。
"He was a very helpful young man, but he was quiet," said Debora Maruca-Kovac, a surgical nurse whose family took in Hawkins after her 17- and 19-year-old sons befriended him.
"He didn't cause a lot of trouble. He tried to help out all the time," Maruca-Kovac said. "He was very thankful for everything. He wasn't a violent person at all."
But police said it was Hawkins who went into an Omaha shopping mall on Wednesday and began a shooting rampage that killed eight people. It ended when he turned his high-powered rifle on himself. The rampage was as troubling as it was puzzling for those who knew him.
Hawkins, 19, had been in trouble before. There was a felony drug conviction in March 2005 and the disorderly conduct charge seven months later. He was due in court later this month on charges he contributed to the delinquency of a minor.
But Maruca-Kovac said she saw nothing foreshadowing the horror Hawkins would inflict during his last moments alive. She remembered a gentle young man who loved animals. She regarded him so benignly that when he showed her an AK-47 semiautomatic rifle the night before his attack, she thought little of it, the Omaha World-Herald reported.
But she had a feeling of despair soon after she learned about Wednesday shootings. By then, she had learned of a suicide note that Hawkins had left behind.
但她获悉周三的枪击事件之后不久,就产生一种绝望感。到那时她才得知有关霍金斯留下自杀短信一事。
"I had a feeling it could be him," she said.
“我有一种感觉,可能就是他,”她说。
She said she and her husband let Hawkins stay with them after he left or was kicked out of his family's house. Court records show that at least once he was termed a ward of the state, which legally removed him from his parents' custody.
With Hawkins living in her home, Maruca-Kovac could see he had a drinking problem and was an occasional marijuana smoker. He enjoyed music and video games — "normal teenager stuff," she said.
"He was depressed, and he had always been depressed," Maruca-Kovac said. "But he looked like he was getting better
“他很郁闷,他一直都很郁闷,”克拉克-科瓦奇说。“但他看上去就像越来越好,”她说。
The son of a woman who had custody of Hawkins until about a year ago said he was helpful in the yard and around the house.
一位将霍金斯一直监护到大约一年前的妇人的儿子说,无论在院子里,或是在房子周围,他总是助人为乐。
"As far as foster kids go, he was pretty normal," said Ben Glass, 31, the son of Hawkins' former foster mother Mary Glass. " Hawkins lived with the family for about a year. "He was actually one of the easier ones to get along with.
Hawkins had earned a GED after dropping out of Papillion-La Vista High School. He got a driver's license after moving in with the Maruca-Kovacs and five months ago started working at a McDonald's restaurant near their raised ranch-style home in a middle-class neighborhood in Bellevue, Maruca-Kovac said
霍金斯从Papillion-La Vista High School辍学之后,曾做过一次GED测试。他搬进马拉克-科瓦奇的家之后考下了驾照,5个月之前,开始在一家麦当劳餐厅工作,这家餐馆位于贝尔维尤(Bellevue)市,他们那个高大醒目的牧场式家庭所在的一个中产阶层社区附近,马拉克-科瓦奇说。
注释:
GED测验,全名为Tests of General Educational Development,由美国教育评议会American Council on Education (ACE) 所研发,提供应试者检定证明具备美国一般高中毕业生的基本知识与技能。
He was fired from that job this week, Maruca-Kovac said.Two employees of the McDonald's who were eating there Wednesday said they had been told not to talk to anyone about Hawkins.
Hawkins was not on any medication for mental illness, but he had been treated in the past for depression and attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder, Maruca-Kovac said.
Hawkins lived with several friends for a couple days at a time before landing at Maruca-Kovac's house last year, she said.
霍金斯在去年搬到马拉克家之前曾经有一段时间和几个朋友在一起住过几天,她说。
"He was like a lost pound puppy that nobody wanted," she said. "I felt sorry for him. I let him stay, and we tried to get him on his feet."
“他就像一只没人想要的精瘦的小狗,”她说。“我为他感到惋惜。我收留他。我们都试图让他能够自立。 ”
Maruca-Kovac, who works at Nebraska Medical Center, said she was getting ready for work Wednesday when Hawkins phoned her at about 1 p.m., telling her he had left a note. She tried to get him to explain.