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)
\