Who was Jacob Tyler Roberts?
CLACKAMAS, Ore. - While we may never know exactly why a young man opened fire at the Clackamas Town Center in a deadly rampage, details about his life are emerging.
The mall shooting on Tuesday left three people dead, including the gunman, and a teenage girl badly injured. The suspect, 22-year-old Jacob Tyler Roberts, turned the gun on himself, police said.
Jacob Tyler Roberts now joins the list of others whose names and faces are forever linked to tragic killing sprees, like Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold or Kip Kinkel.
What led Roberts to this point is a mystery, according to those who knew him. His aunt, Tami Roberts, is at a loss to explain why this happened, according to a family friend who spoke on her behalf. Tami Roberts is an aunt who raised Jacob and she is referred to as his 'mom' by the family.
"Tami has no understanding or explanation for her son's behavior," the family spokesperson said. "We're very sorry for everyone's loss. He's always been a good boy."
The family friend said Roberts was a popular boy and everyone applauded when he got his high school diploma. She said the entire family is confused because Roberts "doesn't fit the profile."
Hannah Sansburn dated Roberts and said he planned to move to Hawaii. He quit his job and sold everything he owned, already had his plane tickets and was on his way to start a new life last Saturday.
"He said there was nothing left for him here that would tie him down," Sansburn said.
Roberts obviously never left and friends said they never actually saw the airline tickets.
"I hate him for what he did, but I can't hate the person who I knew," Sansburn said. "That's what's so mind-boggling, because that was not the person I knew. The person I knew never, ever would do anything like this."
Leah Reed, a friend of Roberts, was just as stunned.
"He never showed signs of this," Reed said. "What he did was wrong and I understand that. And I know those two families are mourning their loss. But on the other hand we are mourning ours too."
An acquaintance of Roberts (who just wanted to go by her first name, Brittany), said she remembers the young man as jovial, popular and nice to classmates at Milwaukie High School. She said he loved skateboarding.
She saw no indicators of any problems in high school, nor in seeing recent updates of him on Facebook.
“I am as astonished as anybody. I would have never, ever, ever thought this would happen,” she said. “As far as I knew, he was happy.”
She said Roberts was never a loner and never showed any signs of violence. She said she had a couple classes with him toward the beginning and middle of high school, but lost track of him by senior year.
"He was a popular guy. Lots of people liked him, loved him. He was really nice,” she said. “He had so many friends."
A Facebook photo shows Roberts taking target practice at an outdoor range. His friends said they thought target practice was all that it was. There was never a word spoken of even pointing a gun at another person.
Johanna Petrie also once dated Roberts and had a different perspective.
"I really think he was lost in a lot of ways," she said. "He needed to find himself before he could help himself."
"It's just weird," said Ken Hargove, who partied with Roberts. "Four days ago we were hanging out with the guy. We had a drink with him, were laughing and having fun, you know, and then all of a sudden we heard this happened."
A neighbor near his house said Roberts was renting out the basement of a home in the 7300 block of Southeast 84th Avenue, just off Southeast Flavel.
Hau Nguyen lives right next door to the suspect's home and said he was shocked to learn that his neighbor is the man suspected of opening fire at the mall. He said he had seen the man a few times and given a few courteous hellos, but didn't know much else about him.
Police officers stand outside the home of the mall shooting suspect on Wednesday, Dec. 12, 2012. Photo by Shannon L. Cheesman, KATU.com Producer/Reporter.
Amber Acrey lives nearby and said she had brought mail to the house a couple of times, most recently about a week ago. Her address is the same as the suspect's address, but one street over so the mail had gotten to the wrong place.
"We just talked to him at the door," she said. "Told him 'we've got your mail, here you go.' He seemed like a nice gentleman. There didn't seem to be anything strange about him."
"He seemed normal," she added. "He seemed like an everyday person. He didn't seem like he was in distress. It didn't seem like anything was bothering him. I'm a drug and alcohol counselor so I can tell when something is bothering somebody. He didn't seem anything like that at all."
Acrey said there was nothing unusual about the mail - just your average stuff like bills.
KATU Reporter Dan Tilkin talks to resident Amber Acrey on Wednesday, Dec. 12, 2012. Acrey said she met the suspect twice, most recently in the last week, to deliver mail that had been inadvertently dropped off at her home. Photo by Shannon L. Cheesman, KATU.com Producer/Reporter.
This is a tragedy all around. Especially for the victims or course, but also for what caused the young man to snap and disregard what he obviously possessed. A shred of decency. This is not a justification statement or a "poor fellow" point of view, but I look forward to the police putting together some answers. Â
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Prayers for all of us. When something like this happens it can put fear in you where ever you go. If I did not have the hope and faith that I do I would not be able to go a day. So, so sad that people have to hurt.
To me it seems like 2 people. One person was nice, social and normal in every aspect of their life. The other seems different. I have a friend who knew him. They're taken back by what happened, but they have no doubts that he did wrong. They just find it weird that he did what he did.I personally feel that this whole thing is a tragedy. It's not just the victims and their families. It touched 1000's of people. His Aunt/Mom and friends are all effected emotionally by this. All we can do is say prayers for everyone who was there, who passed and their families including the gunman's family. Nothing more can be done. Wondering why he would do such a thing is pointless. Whats done is done. Now it's time as a community to rebuild and support all those affected by the tragedy.
how many " lone gunman" does it take to make a bunch? Â and how many times do we have to see large scale drills be followed by actual events before anybody starts questioning wtf is going on.? .how many " he -seemed -normal but- suddenly- snapped " cases does it take ? Â
 @Doc Out of curiosity as well, does it take to do what?Â
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-not intended to be a sarcastic slam or reflective response. What do you propose?Â
 @Doc just curious... What do you propose?
Who was he? WHO CARES. He didn't matter, he was merely a cowardly pathetic loser who murdered innocent people, good people, for no reason whatsoever. He was a COWARD and he is now swimming in an eternal sea of fire.
Everyone should care about who he was and why he did this. Did you know him? If you didn't how do you know he was a coward? Clearly he had problems. Yes he murdered innocent people. How many more people out there are on the brink of doing something like this and no one notices because everyone is too busy play video games, Â text messaging and Facebooking about what they are doing over the weekend, who they are dating and what they are wearing. Human beings are too disconnected from one another. People need to wake up and look around and see what's happening to society.
Eternal sea of fire? Seriously? That would lead us to believe you are a Christian. So I'm not surprised that you say WHO CARES and HE DIDN'T MATTER. Isn't that contrary to what Jesus supposedly taught. You should be ashamed for spouting something so stupid and cold. You live in a very strange reality if you really believe everything your wrote and you are definately part of the problem not the solution.
 @Jenni Jenz There is always a reason -- it might not make sense, it certainly might not be acceptable, and it might not be logical. We have to seek answers, however, to try and understand how/why something like this occurred. That's the only way we can fight against it happening again. These types of occurrences are a telltale sign of a malady in our society, and if we hope to avoid more of this in the future, we must try to understand how and why it happened.Â
He needed a Dad......pretty simple.
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Rest Jacob.....God speed to the survivors
 @GoodbyeOregon the father was M.I.A and his mother died in childbirth so.....his Aunt is his "mother" so of the comments unleashed from some of these people just make me sick....good people dont just go shooting up places for no reason. Nobody knows what exactly set him off. people claim he was using drugs, some claim it was a break up from over summer. nobody knows and honestly I feel for everybody as to the reason this happened nothing was left behind??? there has to be something that was left behind a letter a piece of mail nobody just goes killing people for no damn reason and honestly I dont think he ment to kill 2 people...and how the hell do you shoot yourself with an ar-15 its not exactly a small firearm! and he wasnt exactly super tall with long arms.......and NOT everybody goes directly to hell........they are judged on there carryout of there life. so all we can do is hope for some form of clue that leads us to an answer......maybe he felt he had no hope left as his photo on a website says follow your dreams CANCELLED. mind you was added on oct 3.....
@MrsCoyote @GoodbyeOregon While not exactly small it's not exactly big either, about 22" from end of barrel to trigger. I'm sure most people could reach that.
 @MrsCoyote  @GoodbyeOregonÂ
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I'm not religious, but under traditional Christian theology, those who violate the sixth commandment (thou shalt not murder) - especially for pleasure/self-amusement, as appears to be the case here - would be condemned to damnation. There's no coming back from a pleasure-murder plus a suicide in any kind of mainstream Christian theology. You're done in the eyes of God.
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Other religious traditions are more forgiving, or offer more hope for some kind of redemption, but Christianity is fairly clear on that point.Â
 @WhobekeÂ
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Sin is Sin..... only the Catholic Church teaches "un- forgivable sin " which is in complete error with the Gospel of Jesus Christ
 @Whobeke  @MrsCoyote  @GoodbyeOregonÂ
Better read your whole Bible dood - we serve a loving & awesome God and you have no knowledge of what spiritual condition this boy was in. It's between and him & God, not Christian theology.
@MrsCoyote @Whobeke @GoodbyeOregon Ya know..you're right. I can't understand why they're not selling 50 books a minute about Barabbas.
 @Whobeke  @GoodbyeOregon and christianity has had its book written how many times? oh now i remember too many. and if thats the case.......id be going to hell.. -_-
They will probably find he was on mushrooms, weed or bath salts....
People don't murder other people while smoking weed. What an uneducated thing to say. Maybe he was just a victim of society. A person with mental problems who wasn't getting any help and everyone around him was too self absorbed to notice the downward spiral.
@PTLD CITIZEN I'm be careful with a statement like that, I'm sure there are people who smoke weed and then murder someone else. Doesn't mean that the weed pushed them over the edge to do it, but it does happen I'm sure.
@Costco22 Bath Salts or Mushrooms, perhaps.....but no possible way that weed is to blame. In fact, it would have the opposite effect (everything is all peaceful and mellow)
I wonder if the autopsy will reveal biological causes for such horrible actions.
I am so sick and tired of the media glorifying the bad guy. He's getting what he wanted and that was attention. Does the media think that by them showing a picture and writing countless dribble about him that it will bring back the people whose lives he has taken? The sooner he is forgotten, the better for all concerned.Â
What he did is a symptom of a very sick society. People like you need to wake up and look around. How many more people are out there with problems of this nature and no one sees it because they're too involved in Facebook and their cell phone? Clearly he needed help. No one is glorifying him as an individual or glorifying his actions in any way. But forgetting what happened and not trying to figure out why sure isn't going to keep this from happening again.
 @ritfam Nobodys glorifying the guy, it's humans natural curiosity to answer "why". Simple as that. Don't forget, regardless of his heinous crime, there are people out there that loved him too.
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@HarryJuku Well duh, he was a lunatic and he did have a gun. Great job at putting that together.
 @HarryJuku For once we agree!
Now would be a good chance for a few of the Ivy League Liberals that have been pushing the "unimportance" of a father figure in the raising of male children to push their claim. Obviously, it does make a difference. A big difference. Way too many broken families and way too many problem children.Â
 @last boyscout The kids Mom died, I think his aunt or "Mom" did an incredibly selfless thing by raising him. So you think his aunt should marry some guy so a father figure would be present? I've known WAY too many women who suffered abuse by their father, to the point where it almost seems the norm....it's scary to me.
 @last boyscout Or all of those Conservatives who want to force women to have unwanted children...
 @phijef  @last boyscout Awesome point!
 @last boyscout Hey- a guy I went to high school with just lit himself on fire because he couldn't deal with the years of sexual abuse perpetrated on him by his father. He had a mom and a dad (both of whom knew the sexual abuse- or rape- was going on for years). Glad that two parent situation worked out so well! Here's a link to the story:http://www.unionleader.com/article/20121210/NEWS07/121219950&template=mobileart*
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Boy..why didn't we see this? You're SO right. All fathers are evil. Let's not abolish assault rifles. Let's abolish all fathers.
 @KillsGermsOnContact ~  Sometimes, I think we should just abolish PEOPLE and give the planet back to the animals and the birds, fish and plants...  If and when human beings evolved again, maybe the next batch would do better than we have...
 @HarryJuku If the "mother" chooses a piece of shi* to be her partner in raising a family, then someone has done a poor job of educating women on choosing mates. Either way, as long as society condones the pumping out of bast**d children, marriage as an option, 70% of children being born to unwed mothers, these killing sprees will likely increase.
 @last boyscout  @pdxd Only one not being civil here was you, BS. You're just upset because you lost the argument.
 @tigress  @pdxd Both of you got me. My first mistake was attempting to have a civil dialogue with Liberals, good job, I was definitely blindsided.
 @last boyscout  @pdxd It's a word. Look it up. That's all you got?
 @tigress  @pdxd "portend"?
 @pdxd  @last boyscout Exactly. And you can't blame the moms of these monsters for "choosing a piece of shi*" because these were the kinds of fathers you portend to be what stands between kids and crime, BS.
 @last boyscout How about the Menendez brothers? Raised in an upper-class 2-parent household, and then salvagedly killed their parents? What about Kip Kinkel? Loving family, loving parents, loving sister, turned around, killed both parents and then opened fire at the Thurston high school.
 @pdxd  @tigress Ok, now that you've given the "Christian" reason, now give me one I can follow, I'm not religious. Smartazz.
 @tigress @last boyscout Exactly, let's see here, maybe to put it into terms that Christians can follow, Adam and Eve were devoted to their sons, and Cain did murder his brother. Can't blame everything on the parents.
 @last boyscout  @pdxd Well, it isn't having a good father figure. Too many examples in recent news of murderers who had both parents involved in their lives and "good" fathers - the Dark Knight shooter and the freak who shot Gabby Giffords being among them. My own personal example is my husband whose natural father bailed on the family when my husband was a kid, followed by two loser stepfathers, and yet my husband turned out to be a fine man, as compared to my brother who is a lunatic and was raised by a loving father and mother. You can't continue to blame all bad behavior on the lack of either a father figure or having two straight parents who stay together.
 @pdxd So, what are we doing wrong? Isn't bad behavior among youth and young adults getting worse? What's the cure in your opinion? Â
 @last boyscout And here's the issue I take though, even though you are aware that there are no guarantees, you still promote that the 1950's style family is ideal, when clearly it isn't. As long as the child is happy and healthy, I don't care if the child is raised by Grandma/Grandpa, Mom & Dad, Mom or Dad, Dad/Dad, Mom/Mom, what I care about is that the child is raised happy and healthy.Â
 @pdxd As a child, I remember the phone ringing late at night, then my dad would leave, then come back with his sister and her two very small children with her. She would have black eyes etc..I'm no stranger to a s s hole fathers and screwed up marriages. Because of the "real" stories I was told about this creep and what I witnessed myself, I grew up trying to be the opposite of my aunts husband. He was a real piece of sh**. I know that there are no guarantees.Â
 @last boyscout F-U! During the 50's my mom met a guy, really seemed to be a nice guy, got married, he started beating her, she left, went back, got knocked up and then while she was pregnant, he was screwing half the town.Â
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Just because people get married, doesn't mean it's going to be a good or healthy marriage, and just because they are married doesn't mean they will be good parents.Â
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I'm not going to blame this on the parents, not one bit. And let's not forget that violent crimes have occurred throughout history, it's not due to the fact that a mother died during child-birth and the child was then raised by his aunt.
 @HarryJuku  @last boyscout I've got to give it to you.....spectacular comeback!
 @HarryJuku  @last boyscout Where was mom, which would have been the second half of the equation;-)
 @HarryJuku  @last boyscout I agree with you on that!