Meli said he, too, was armed with a gun. He trained his weapon on Roberts but didn't shoot, he told The Oregonian early Monday outside his home in Clackamas because he was worried about hitting an innocent bystander. Authorities confirmed Monday that Meli was seen during the incident, gun drawn, near the entrance to Macy's inside the mall.
Roberts seriously injured Kristina Shevchenko, a year-old who lives in Southeast Portland with her family. Meli earlier told a KGW reporter that he heard three gunshots, and then positioned himself behind a pillar in the mall.
Meli said he saw the gunman working on his rifle, pulling a charging handle and hitting the side of the weapon. The biggest difference here lies in the outcome. Two innocent people died and a year-old girl was seriously hurt before Jacob Roberts pointed his semiautomatic rifle at himself, yet it could have been so much worse. If Roberts' gun hadn't jammed, if he'd known what he was doing, if he'd chosen a more crowded day or entrance, if police hadn't responded so swiftly, if mall employees hadn't followed their training so quickly and so well.
We have a report of a person that's shot. Getting a lot of calls on it. So far it looks like it may be in the area of the food court. Sounds like it may be an actual active shooter. There's one person saying there's a man with a rifle near the food court and that he's still shooting people.
Jacob Roberts left home in a hurry Tuesday, tossing a guitar case in the back of his Volkswagen Jetta and speeding off without even a nod toward the neighbor who saw him go. Life hadn't gone well so far. He'd fallen out with his aunt, who raised him since he was a toddler, and abandoned dreams of joining the Marine Corps after breaking his foot trying to jump a Dumpster on his bike.
He'd recently broken up with a girlfriend, sold his belongings, quit his job at a late-night sandwich shop and told friends he planned to move to Hawaii to ponder his future. Then he told them he missed his flight.
Monday was his mother's birthday. She died at 22, just as he soon would. Roberts lived with a few other somethings in a small house off Southeast 84th Avenue. The drive from the low-slung rental to Clackamas Town Center's sprawling 1. Roberts parked on the southern side of the mall, between Macy's and Chipotle. He walked in through the department store, past glittery sweaters on sale for half off, the handbag department and the perfume counter.
Several people who saw him thought his clothes -- black hooded sweatshirt, load-bearing vest, white plastic mask -- must be a paintball outfit. One Macy's sales associate thought he was wearing a costume and carrying a toy rifle. Holiday music played softly from store sound systems. Roberts waited to open fire until he was out of Macy's and in the large, airy atrium that serves as an unofficial center of the mall.
To his left, a wide store-lined walkway led to Nordstrom and Sears. To his right, a similar phalanx of shops ended at J. Straight ahead and across an open-air balcony was the food court, crowded with shoppers, parents and children running holiday errands on the way home from school, and college kids back in town for winter break. The first call about gunshots -- the first of almost dispatchers received in a five-minute span -- came at p.
A few people screamed when they saw Roberts raise the semi-automatic rifle he'd stolen that morning. More screamed after he fired the first two, quick shots. He seemed to have offered no warning and fired wildly, witnesses said.
On the other end of the line, his father heard the phone drop. The call went dead. Forsyth, a father of two and youth sports coach, had taken one bullet to the head. He lay on his back, arms by his side. Roberts shot her in the back with what family members were told was a "stray bullet.
She was shot in the chest and managed to make it out of the mall before collapsing. After the initial burst of gunfire, Roberts walked a few paces west from Macy's, as if headed to the food court, witnesses said, scanning the crowd as he went.
By p. Four SWAT teams spent hours clearing the 1. Sheriff Roberts said local authorities have an "active shooting protocol" that calls for arriving officers to form teams and quickly move in. Officers had practiced the techniques at the mall this year, he said. The suspect's vehicle, a Volkswagen Jetta found parked at the mall, and his Portland home were searched after the shooting, Sheriff Roberts said.
An official said multiple rounds of ammunition were found inside the house. Austin Patty, 20, who works at Macy's, said he saw a man in a white mask carrying a rifle and wearing a bulletproof vest, and told the Associated Press that he heard the gunman say, "I am the shooter," as if announcing himself. Patty said he ducked to the ground as a series of rapid shots were fired, then ran to safety.
Alina Pavlenko, 16, who was working at a cupcake stand in the mall, said she saw the gunman shoot at a woman and watched her fall, then saw the shooter point in her direction and fire. She said she froze. More Videos Witness: I saw woman on ground, shot Woman: Thought shooter was in flash mob Shooting witness: People were screaming People leave Oregon mall with arms up Outside Macy's, gunshots echoed where a man portraying Santa Claus was snapping photos with kids.
Customers and employees alike started running for the exits, Moran said. Kids were crying. Parents were crying, too. We stood there for probably a good 20 minutes," she said. Are you there?
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