Mall Shooter's Mother: 'Dear God, No!'
Maribel Rodriguez Tells Diane Sawyer She Did 'Best' She Could With Her Son
By CHRIS FRANCESCANI & JIM VOJTECH
Dec. 13, 2007 —


"Dear God, no!"

It was the first, anguished thought that sprung to the mind of the mother of the Omaha mall sniper Robert Hawkins when she realized her son was the killer.

"Dear God, no!,'' Maribel Rodriguez repeated Thursday morning in an exclusive interview with Diane Sawyer on "Good Morning America"

"No, not him,'' she said, carefully framing her thoughts at that moment. "He is NOT doing this!'' she said emphatically, then sighed deeply.

Rodriguez said her son's life had been a challenge from the start. She divorced Hawkins' father when the boy was 3-years-old, she said, and by 5 he was taking prescription Ritalin and Zoloft. She said she watched, feeling helpless the way a parent can, as raw anger took root inside her son.

First there were fights at school, she said. Then he was caught smoking cigarettes. Then marijuana.

He became a ward of the state in 2002 after apparently threatening his stepmother. He was moved through facilities and foster homes for several years, until he was released in 2005. Two weeks before the shooting rampage, Hawkins parted ways with his girlfriend.

Rodriguez said she sympathizes deeply with the families of her son's victims.

"I'm not a dictator, so I can't tell you what to think,'' Rodriguez said on 'Good Morning America' Thursday. "But as his mother I loved him, deeply and without end. If you want to hate Rob, hate Rob,'' she continued. "You don't need that type of pain. It destroys your soul."

She said she, too, feels the enormity of the tragedy.

"It's massive,'' she told Sawyer, her eyes widening. "It's massive. It's turmoil. It's confusion. It's&absolute devastation."

Hawkins killed eight people before turning a gun on himself and committing suicide. Two more of the funerals for his victims were conducted Tuesday.

"There were nine worlds shattered," the Rev. Donald Shane told mourners at St. Robert Bellarmine Catholic Church during a service for victim Angie Schuster, according to the Associated Press. "The worlds of Beverly Flynn. And Janet Jorgensen. And Gary Joy. And John McDonald, my classmate. And Gary Scharf. And Dianne Clavin Trent. And Maggie Webb. And our Angie.

"And a tragic, tragic end to the life of Robert Hawkins,'' he added.

The final funeral was held Wednesday. In a note Hawkins left behind, he said that he knows "everyone will remember me as some sort of monster but please understand that I just don't want to be a burden on the ones that I care for my entire life," 19-year-old Robert Hawkins wrote. "I just want to take a few peices (sic) of (expletive) with me."

The rampage was the deadliest mall shooting in U.S. history.

http://abcnews.go.com/GMA/story?id=3994022&page=1
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No mention if he was still on them.....

He took medication because he was not well. He murdered a bunch of people because he was not well. You cannot conclude from the fact that he took medication that the cause of the violence was the medication. His illness caused him both to take the medication and to murder. The illness, not the medication, is the cause. Perhaps, without the medication, he would have killed earlier?

Skelly writes "so what" in response to the article explaining the presence of psych meds found in the body of the shooter in the Omaha mall attacks..

So what that many other people who have committed similar murders were also under the influence of pharmaceutical psychiatric medications?

So what that there is direct evidence linking the consumption of psychiatric meds with violent behavior?

So what that the pharmaceutical corporations attempt to cover this info up and continuously overprescribe their pharmacuetical products to emotionally disturbed youth??

"If drug-induced psychosis was part of the toxic psychological mix of these mass murders, the public has a right to know. Instead, the media hides behind liability concerns and the drug industry hides behind patient-physician confidentiality and patent privacy, not to mention criminal obfuscation, which the courts have uncovered repeatedly.

To their credit, the US FDA and Health Canada have concluded that antidepressants produce "anxiety, agitation, panic attacks, insomnia, irritability, hostility, aggressiveness, impulsivity, akathisia (psychomotor restlessness), hypomania, and mania."

In other words, instead of offering the promise of reducing violence, psychiatric drugs carry the potential risk of driving the individual into violent madness.

Here’s how it works. Antidepressants are chemical stimulants designed to give you a kick in the butt when you’re unmotivated. Problem is, the kick can go over the top, causing extreme agitation, emotional disinhibition, emotional blunting, and manic or psychotic reactions – all which have been clearly linked to suicide and violence especially when coupled with impulsivity. Times in which the patient are most vulnerable are the start of drug treatment, discontinuation, or dosage change."

found @;
http://activistmagazine.com/index.php?option=content&task=view&id=692&Itemid=143

If that doesn't appear scientific enough for the skeptics out there, try this one;

"CCHR’s policy statement in response to these moves for mandated screening and treatment, warns:

Psychotropic Drugs and Violence

Of the 1.5 million children and adolescents in the U.S. currently taking antidepressants, 4% could potentially become manic and violent—potentially 60,000 potential time bombs driven to senseless acts of violence. Mandatory toxicology tests for psychotropic drug intake are needed in all cases of violent crime and suicide. Congressional Hearings are needed into the link between psychiatric drugs and school violence.

Harvard Medical School psychiatrist, Dr. Joseph Glenmullen, author of Prozac Backlash, says antidepressants could explain the rash of school shootings and mass-suicides over the last decade. Those taking antidepressants, he said, could “become very distraught….They feel like jumping out of their skin. The irritability and impulsivity can make people suicidal or homicidal.”

In September 2006, Dr. David Healy, director of the North Wales Department of Psychological Medicine, and colleagues published the findings of their study of the antidepressant, Paxil, in the journal Public Library of Science Medicine stating: “We’ve got good evidence that the drugs can make people violent and you’d have to reason from that that there may be more episodes of violence.”

In August 2006, The Archives of General Psychiatry published a study by Mark Olfson, MD, MPH stating that in children and adolescents, “the risk of suicide attempts was nearly two times higher after antidepressant drug treatment compared with no antidepressant drug treatment.” In 2005, Norwegian researchers found that Paxil was seven times more likely to induce suicide in people taking it than those taking placebo."

found @;
http://www.cchrflorida.org/psychiatric-pharma-industry-cover-up/

Bottom line is, if these youth are already emotionally disturbed and they have NOT yet killed anyone, prescribing them psychiatric drugs appears to increase the probability that they will kill someone (or SomeoneS). That indicates that psychiatric pharma products are counterproductive and ineffective to say the least. So maybe we should think twice before allowing our neighbors, friends and family to fall victim to the cult of the psychiatric pharma cartel??

Try peer support drop in centers and non-invasive therapy methods (ie., good ol' fashioned "talking" therapy to allow the distressed individual an emotional outlet?). Drop in centers are low cost voluntary treatment measures that are underfunded and/or nonexsistant in many places. However, there are still drop-in-centers available in many cities of the U.S.

One example;

"The Mental Health Rights Coalition has a Peer Support Program where people seeking peer support can be matched one-on-one with a trained volunteer. The individual seeking support will meet regularly with the same Peer Support Volunteer on an ongoing basis. These matched relationships usually meet or speak on the phone once a week. Matches first meet at MHRC, and then move into community settings. In addition to emotional support and goal setting, matched relationships may also enjoy social activities together.

If you are interested in the Peer Support Program, you can contact the Peer Support Coordinator to discuss the matching process in more detail. This is a self-referral program that does not require a doctor, nurse, social worker or specialist to call on your behalf. The Peer Support Matching Program is free of charge.

Drop-in Peer Support

Sometimes people don’t need ongoing Peer Support but would like to talk with a peer once in a while. You can access a trained Peer Support Worker by calling or visiting our drop-in centre. Our Peer Support Workers and Volunteers are available to talk Monday-Friday, 11am-4pm. Just ask for some Peer Support when you call or walk in and you can meet one-on-one with a Peer Supporter in a quiet room. People who visit the drop-in centre for Peer Support often want to speak to someone because they are in distress, need some problem solving, want support around symptom management, want some social interaction, or are looking for a referral to another community agency."

found @;
http://www.mentalhealthrights.ca/ps.html

If a chemical treatment is needed to alleviate symptoms, many doctors and their patients are discovering that medicianl cannabis is far more effictive and safer than the deadly pharma psych meds..

"Patients who use cannabis to "relax" may be treating the anxiousness sometimes associated with depression. Cannabis aids the insomnia sometimes present in depression and can improve appetite. Better pain control with cannabis can reduce chronic pain related depression.

Patients themselves are often the best judges of whether or not cannabis helps relieve the symptoms of depression. A poorly educated or narrow-minded physician may think any use of cannabis to be a substance abuse related aspect of depression. More enlightened psychiatrists (i.e. Lester Grinspoon of Harvard Medical School) appreciate the often beneficial aspects of cannabis therapy."

found @;
http://www.letfreedomgrow.com/cmu/depression_and_cannabis.htm

Remind ourselves again it was the GW Bush regime who only a few years ago proposed the nationwide depression screening, this enterprising individual also owns stock in Eli Lilly, one of the largest pharma psych med distributers of Prozac..

"Furthermore, if President Bush's New Freedom Initiative succeeds, TMAP will set the standards for an entire nation screened for mental illness and treated based on pharmaceutical-focused algorithms.

Big Pharma's strong political ties
Who will create the screening tests and who will create the algorithms? Well, Big Pharma will undoubtedly play a role, as it always does. Eli Lilly and Janssen Pharmaceutica's parent company, Johnson & Johnson, already have extensive ties to the Bush Family and the federal government. Take a look at these links:

Eli Lilly (Prozac, Zyprexa):
Former President George Herbert Walker Bush = former member of the Eli Lilly board of directors

Mitch Daniels, President George W. Bush's former director of Management and Budget = former Eli Lilly vice president

Sidney Taurel, member of President Bush's
Homeland Security Advisory Council = current CEO of Eli Lilly

The National Alliance for the Mentally Ill (NAMI) = major recipient of Eli Lilly funding

(Source: "Eli Lilly, Zyprexa and the Bush Family" by Bruce Levine) "

found @;
http://www.newstarget.com/018715.html

Hmm, GW Bush orders the screening of the population of the U.S. for depression, then psychiatrists prescribe anyone with symptoms some Prozac? Cowinkidink anyone??