Journal # 33 Mall shooting 911 tapes reveal terror

OMAHA, Neb. - Three quick gunshots, then nothing. Then a gasp, and again, nothing. Then more gunfire, and a 911 operator's questions going unanswered.The Omaha Police Department released tapes Thursday of 911 calls made around the time teenage gunman Robert A. Hawkins' bullets tore through a crowded shopping mall. He would kill eight people and himself inside the Von Maur department store before it was over.One caller who hasn't been identified wouldn't - or couldn't - answer an operator's questions as the sound of gunfire echoed in the bacThe recording begins with three distinct "pops."The next sound is a gasp."911. What's your emergency?" the operator asks.The operator gets no response - just 47 seconds of the staccato patter of gunfire, broken by pauses, before the line goes dead.kground.