Image provided by: Morrow County Museum; Heppner, OR
About Heppner gazette-times. (Heppner, Or.) 1925-current | View Entire Issue (Dec. 19, 2012)
Wishing Morrow County a Jurassic Christmas L ib ra r\ tugene. OR 97403 5(K azefte u n ei VOL. 131 N 0. 49 8 Pages Wednesday, December 19, 2012 Jurassic or modern, the North Lex Scraposaurs are certainly festive as they greet drivers along Highway 207. The machine-scrap creatures, products of the Rauch family, are decked out in garlands and bows, with stockings in hand to receive gifts from Santa. And, as prom ised, a third species has joined the other two...this one with wings in case St. Nicholas needs help pulling that sleigh. -Photo by Megan Futter Town and Country nominations due Heppner area residents have until the end of the Morrow County, Heppner, Oregon week to nominate individu als and businesses for the annual Town and Coun try Community Awards. Deadline for nominations is Friday, Dec. 21; forms need to be turned in to the Heppner chamber or Kuhn Law Offices. Heppner residents experience mall shooting Mall scenes were ‘ surreal , ’ witness says Lynda and Alvin Liu, still suffering from jet lag but happy to be alive after their experience at Clackamas Town Center last week. -Photo by Megan Flitter * By Andrea Di Salvo For many o f us this Christmas season, acts of violence are blessedly far aw ay...scen es from the news, posts on Facebook or stories told to us of war on other continents. We empathize with victims, feel sorrow for families, yet largely remain untouched by those far-off events. For four Heppner resi dents, though, violence hit all too close to home during a trip to the mall. On Monday, Dec. 10, Alvin and Lynda Liu and Darren and Catherine Olsen flew into Portland Interna tional Airport, returning from a mission trip to the Philippines. They spent that night in an area hotel. The next day, they decided to stay awake and battle jet lag with a trip to one of Port land’s most popular malls, Clackamas Town Center. Little did they know that, around 3:30 that afternoon, 22-year-old Jacob Roberts would walk into the mall and open fire with an AR- 15 rifle. The couples had split up; the Lius headed to Coldwater Creek, a store just outside the main mall. The O lsens them selves separated after agreeing to a meeting place. Alvin and Lynda Liu said they thought Darren also went outside the mall, perhaps to REI. In fact, neither of the Lius realized anything had happened until they went back into the mall to meet their friends. Neither they nor anyone else in Cold- water Creek, on the oppo site side of the mall from the food court where the shooter entered, had heard the approximately 60 gun shots during Roberts' shoot ing spree. They said that when they walked inside the mall, they saw some store gates going down. Their first thought, according to Alvin, was “Where are all the peo ple?” A shoe store employ ee asked if they wanted to get inside the locked-down store. Still unaware of what had happened, the Lius kept walking toward the place they were to rendezvous with the Olsens. Alvin said they saw broken glass, spilled pop and dropped packages, but didn’t fully understand the significance of what they were seeing; they thought it might be vandalism, but wondered where the clean ing crews were. “You just don’t think about something like that (a shooting),” said Lynda. With escalators that had stopped running, the couple headed up to the second floor toward the food court. There, the disaster started to set in. The food court was empty. They said they saw a young woman in hyster ics, with a security guard trying to comfort her. The guard told them to get out of the mall. The Lius also saw the body of one of the victims. They still didn’t realize he had been shot, but saw three people working over the still form trying to administer CPR. “It was good to see... there were still people there who were willing (to help),” said Lynda, adding that, at that point, the gunman was still at large. “When I saw that man dead, it was so surreal,” Alvin said. “I thought, ‘Is this a movie?”’ To add to the surreal Hollywood feel, the couple came face-to-face with the incoming SWAT team. “First they pointed their guns at us,” Alvin said. “They said, ‘What are you still doing here? Run!”’ The Lius said they “walked quickly” out of the mall. After that, the po lice wouldn't let them near the building again. They still hadn't seen the Olsens, and Alvin said the airways were jammed with calls, made it impossible to reach anyone on a cell phone. They walked around the mail’s exterior to Chipotle, where they met Catherine and Darren Olsen, already safely outside. Catherine Olsen’s ex perience, inside Clackamas Town Center, had been far different. For her, “Christ mas carols playing over Macy’s speakers were sud denly drowned out by the awful noise of close gun fire.” When the sound of gun fire erupted, Catherine said she looked for a place to hide. “I asked the clerks who were motioning me away from the ‘employee only’ locked room if I could come in, too,” she said. “There was no time to figure out what was happening, where to hide, how to react— heroically or selfishly—or, worst o f all, to find my loved ones.” She said that sobbing and frightened customers continually knocked on THIS WEEK’S NEWS AND ADVERTISEMENT DEADLINE: FRIDAY AT 5:00 P.M. I The event will be held at the Morrow County Fair grounds and will begin at 6 p.m. with a no-host social hour. Cornerstone Gallery will be catering the meal and will be serving the “Ultimate Barbecue Feast,” consisting o f barbecued brisket, barbecued baby back ribs, barbecued beans with bacon, A l’s favorite com bread muffins, oven- roasted garlic and herb potatoes, vanilla ice cream with mint chocolate sauce and country straw berry lemonade. Tickets will be $20 per person and will be available for purchase. Don’t be a Scrooge! the door, and the group in the closet continued to let them in. “There, they too dis covered that the door was made o f thin composite wood—hardly bulletproof!” said Catherine. She said the people around her discussed wheth er or not they should be qui et so the gunman wouldn’t hear them; her only thought was that she wished they would, indeed, be quiet so as not to draw the shooter’s attention. There was no way to call for help or reach family; cell phones didn’t have service inside their wooden hiding place. Just before the shoot ing, she said, she walked past the store the gunman entered moments later. She thought about going in and shopping for one last Christmas present. “Instead, I continued to the place I’d left an outfit to try on. I didn’t know why, since 1 didn’t even really like the outfit and definitely wasn’t clothes shopping,” Catherine said. Instead of “dawdling” as she said was her habit, she grabbed the outfit and headed for the dressing room. “That was when the gunman came through the same store, same floor, feet away,” she finished. Scrooge (pictured here played by Jeff Bailey) will be alive and Catherine eventually well during this year’s Celebrate Christmas event in Hepp met up with husband, Dar- ner... but he won't be spoiling anyone's good time. The evening Celebrate Christmas in Heppner this Thursday at the Morrow county Fairgrounds promises lots of food, fun -See MALL SHOOTING/ and festivities this Thursday, Dec. 20, beginning with dinner PAGE SIX and Santa photos at 6 p.m. and moving on to reward card, raffles and other prize drawings at 7:30 p.m. -File photo G-T closed for Christmas, New Year’s The Gazette-Times will be closed Monday, Dec. 24 and Tuesday, Dec. 25, for the Christmas holi day. The news and ad dead line for the Dec. 26 edition will be Friday, Dec. 21 at 5 p.m. Normal business hours will resume Wednesday, Dec. 26. The Gazette-Times will also be closed Tuesday, Jan. 1, for New Year’s Day. The news and ad deadline for the Jan. 2 edition will be Friday, Dec. 28 at 5 p.m. Normal business hours will resume Wednesday, Jan 2. We wish everyone a safe and happy Christmas season. VF II lv Iv A T CANT M I WVTE t i l F T g Wrangler Mens 13 MW 2 Jeans $21.95 gle Montana Silver \ A ll other Wrangler Cowboy Kickers clothing 10% off thru pec. 29th 20% OFF 3 ALL MCGG LOCATIONS CLOSED DECEMBER. 24 f 23 FEED STORE-WILL BE OPEN UNTIL NOON DECEMBER 2* Morrow County Grain Growers Green Feed A Seed 242 W. Lindtn Way, Happnar • 676-9422 • 999-8221 (MCOO main oMca) \
