Omaha, Neb. ? A man dressed in camouflage and armed with a rifle opened fire among holiday shoppers in an Omaha department store Wednesday, killing eight people and sending hundreds into terrified panic.

The young shooter, who left a note predicting “Now I’ll be famous,” wounded five others, two critically, then took his own life. His body was found on the third floor of the Von Maur department store at Westroads Mall. Police recovered an SKS assault rifle believed to have been used by the gunman.

The shooter was identified as Robert A. Hawkins, 19. Witnesses at the mall described him as having a military-style haircut, wearing a camouflage vest and a black backpack and carrying a rifle.

Witnesses said the gunman fired down on shoppers from a third-floor balcony of the Von Maur store.

“My knees rocked. I didn’t know what to do, so I just ran with everybody else,” said Kevin Kleine, 29, who was shopping with her 4-year-old daughter at the Westroads Mall, in a prosperous neighborhood on the city’s west side. She said she hid in a dressing room with four other shoppers and an employee.

The shooter was found dead in the store’s customer service area, apparently shooting himself before officers arrived. The shooting events appeared related to a suicide note found in Sarpy County about the time of the shootings.

“The shooter is deceased, and it appears to be a self-inflicted gunshot wound,” said Sgt. Teresa Negron, an Omaha police spokeswoman. She said police believe the gunman acted alone.

Two in critical condition

Dozens of Omaha police, Douglas County sheriff’s deputies, FBI agents and officers from area police departments sealed off and closed the mall. Rescue workers were seen carrying multiple gurneys into the store.

The five wounded people were being treated at Creighton University Medical Center and the Nebraska Medical Center. Two were reported to be in critical condition.

Once the shooting started, employees and customers rushed to hide wherever they could, in storerooms and other rooms off the shopping floor.

Renee Toney was working in the gift wrap area behind the customer service counter when the gunman came off a third-floor elevator and began firing shots into the ceiling.

“He was moving very fast,” she said. The shots “were very, very fast, I would say closer to 30 (shots) in all.”

A supervisor called for everyone to go into a stockroom behind the customer service area, and she rushed there, the others just feet behind her.

But she was the only one of her immediate co-workers to make it to the stockroom.

“None of them made it out,” Toney said. “I was up front, and everybody except me was shot. It’s a blur. I don’t even know how I got to the stockroom. I was the closest one to the stockroom. Within seconds, they were shot right behind me.”

Employees witness scene

A supervisor later told Toney that the man had said, “Open the safe.” One of the employees moved to open the safe, Toney said. “She never made it to the safe. He shot her before she made it.”

Chuck Wright, a Von Maur employee, said a co-worker who also worked in customer service described hearing the shooting break out and people running. The co-worker saw what appeared to be a customer who had been shot and heard a co-worker in customer service yelling for help.

Someone yelled, “Hold on, Fred, we’ll get to you.”

Another co-worker of Wright’s described standing on the second floor near the escalator and looking up toward the commotion. She then saw a man with a gun lean over a third-floor railing. He then shot a man standing right next to her in the head.

He was hiding in a storeroom with a co-worker when a police officer came up the escalator telling them to come out with their hands up. They ran toward the officers and were ushered out of the store. Shoppers leaving the mall near Von Maur were instructed to walk out with their hands over their heads. Many of them were hysterical and crying. Most of them were women.

Suicide note left

A Von Maur employee who had left the store said one customer was shot while going down the escalator.

Marvelene Sturgeon said she and her daughter were getting ready to leave the mall through Von Maur when the scene turned chaotic.

“People started running out of the door yelling, ‘They’re shooting, they have guns,’ and we heard a lot of shots,” the 73-year-old said.

Police said the call of an active shooting at the mall first came in at 1:42 p.m., and it took six minutes for the first officer to arrive at the scene. Police located a victim soon after entering the store.

At 2:12 p.m., officers located the apparent shooter dead from a gunshot wound.

A Papillion-La Vista Public Schools spokeswoman said Hawkins had attended district schools since kindergarten but withdrew from Papillion-La Vista High School in March 2006.

A suicide note delivered to authorities appears to be directly related to the killing spree.

Within 30 minutes of the shooting, a woman contacted the Sarpy County Sheriff’s Office with a note she had found. Capt. Rolly Yost said “it could be interpreted as suicidal.” He declined to release its contents or say why authorities considered it related to the shooting.

The woman was not aware of the Westroads killings, which had occurred about a half-hour earlier.