Aunt of shooter devastated, doesn't know nephew's motivation
CLACKAMAS, Ore. – The aunt of the man who police say went on a deadly shooting rampage in the Clackamas Town Center is devastated, confused, angry and doesn’t know what to think about her nephew's actions.
Tami Roberts, who became Jacob Tyler Roberts' guardian when his mother died shortly before his third birthday, lives less than a mile from the mall. On Thursday she apologized to all the families of the victims and to everyone inside the mall during Tuesday’s shooting that left three dead, including her nephew, the shooter. The shooting also left a girl seriously injured. She is recovering in a local hospital.
Roberts said she has no idea why her nephew did what he did.
While she wasn't Jacob's biological mother, Roberts raised him like he was.
"They came here at midnight and told me my baby was dead and that he had done some really horrible things," she said. "Something went twang, Jake's not like that. He never ever in his life gave any indication at all that this is what he wanted to do."
Roberts said her nephew started to lose direction in his life when he wasn't able to join the Marines out of high school because of a broken foot.
The two had a falling out when he turned 18, and had not spoken in four years.
Tami Roberts said she tried to contact her nephew many times but declined to say why he refused to speak with her and ultimately blocked her on Facebook.
Court documents show Tami Roberts misappropriated $18,000 that Jacob Roberts received in an inheritance from his grandmother when he was a young teen. She said that was not the reason for the estrangement.
She said she didn't know about his plans to move to Hawaii and didn’t know where he got the gun. She also said she has no idea about what motivated his actions.
"Jake's always been a good boy," she said. "He was so loving and caring."
To show the boy she knew, she showed off an art project her nephew made in the second grade and spoke about the trip they took together for her 40th birthday.
It's the business card left behind by detectives that reminds her what her nephew did is real.
"I feel like if I didn't have this card right here – if I didn’t have this card, I would swear this is the meanest joke that anybody could ever play on me. But this (the card) makes it real," she said.
Roberts doesn't know if Jacob left a note.
She learned about the shooting much like everyone else.
"I was at Walgreens thinking, 'Oh great, some jerk is at Clackamas Town Center ruining everybody's day.' I had no idea my son was the stupid little jerk," she said. "I can't spank him, I can't ground him, I can't send him to his room, I can't keep his friends away from him, I can't take the Nintendo away, there's nothing I can do to make my kid not do what he did."
Roberts said that as part of her grieving process, she wants to raise money for suicide prevention groups. There will be a fund set up starting Friday at U.S. Bank branches called the "Jacob Roberts Memorial Fund."
Meanwhile, employees were allowed back inside Clackamas Town Center for the first time Thursday since the shooting. The mall is set to reopen to the public at 9 a.m. Friday. Also Friday, according to TriMet, regular service around the mall will resume.
There will be a candlelight vigil at 7 p.m. Friday at the mall entrance near Starbucks.
Also, shoppers can begin to claim the items they left behind Friday and Saturday during mall hours. Shoppers can find their items next to the management office on the lower level down the hallway between AT&T and The Buckle. On Sunday, Dec. 16, items can be retrieved from the security office on the upper level food court.
Killed in the shooting were 45-year-old Steve Mathew Forsyth and 54-year-old Cindy Ann Yuille. Kristina Shevchenko, 15, is recovering at Oregon Health & Science University after being shot in the chest.
The Oregon state medical examiner's office determined Forsyth died from a single gunshot wound to the head, Yuille died of a single gunshot wound to the back and Roberts shot himself in the head.
Toxicology results for Roberts are still pending.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
For better accuracy this version changes the reference to Tami Roberts from mother of Jacob Roberts to aunt even though she refers to him as her son and has raised him since he was three.
  MY ONLY THOUGHT IS THERE'S TO MANY YOUNG PEOPLE HOOKED ON THE KILLING GAMES ON THE
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WHAT EVER HAPPENED TO RESTRICTIONS.       I REMEMBER WHEN PAC-MAN CAME OUT THE MOST ADULTS LIKE MY PARENTS REFERED TO THESE CONSUMED PLAYERS AS VIDIOTS.
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  WHAT EVER HAPPENED TO DOING CHORES AND CLEAN LIVING.        YES I AFTER SIXTY SEVEN YEARS
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  TODAYS BAD COMES FROM IMPROPER USE OFFERED BY THE COMPUTER AND FACE BOOK .
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@Donald Ray Webber With all due respect, Don, @67 and with heart problems, I suggest you QUIT YELLING before your heart gives out. Why are you yelling at me anyway? I did nothing to you!
Okay, so things become a little clearer. She doesn't even know him anymore. She stole $18,000 of his money his loving grandmother left to him, he lost his mother when he was 3. He couldn't get into the Marines. Do not donate to any memorial fund this woman creates. She took advantage of him in life, and now she's apparently trying to benefit from him in death. Who in their right mind thinks "'Oh great, some jerk is at Clackamas Town Center ruining everybody's day" when they hear about a fatal shooting? Â
He is a jerk and he did ruin everybodies day there and took the life of 2 innocent people. I fail to follow your logic....Â
I'll offer "Auntie" some sympathy for her loss, but I won't be donating any money to the "memorial fund"....if I want to donate any money, it will be to a victims fund.
I think everyone should think before sending any money to this fund, read the reports, she stole his inheritance. You monies would be better spent on memorial funds for the shooting victims. She hadn't even spoken to him in 4 yrs. I am not by any means saying she is responsible for his actions, but she sure as hell should be responsible for hers.
Before anyone gives a penny to the memorial fund ..read Oregon Live..how the aunt stole his money and how she lists herself as a "professinional stoner"...if you want to help give to the victims fund
Not to worry, I would not give her the sweat off my balls if she was on fire! She has proven herself to be extremely selfish and a lowlife thief. Steal a kids inheritance that his granny gave him? In my not so humble opinion she is almost as guilty as him. Anyone who would steal from their own family (especialy a young teen getting the last bit of love from his granny) is lower than whale crap.
Just a heads up..when a memorial fund is set up the person in charge can do whatever they want with the money...there's no laws or rules that it has to go anywhere but their pocket..I will not give one cent...working for a bank for many years I saw this over and over...if you want to help give to the funds for the victims not to the shooter's family...
He seems as though he was one very hurt, betrayed-feeling, angry, despairing and  feeling  painted-in-a-corner-by-life young man who could not see his way out of that corner. Such a shame and loss....a loss of three people's lives and the carefree sense of holiday enjoyment in all the shoppers and employees at the mall.
That happens when legalize marihuana, like i said marihuana its not for everybody...watch your kids when they are playing Call Of Duty or Medal Of Honor..many violence games today and the worse the parent buy it for their children ironic haaa?? and just they say "but I saw nothing unusual at him"  i think are the videogames and  the sensitivity to the action films and fiction, you know why? because all these cases as far as I remember most of them were men, Think about it and noticed that men always want to be like the hero or villain, and women always want to be the partner of the hero, or partner of the main character yes or not?? thinking and you will note that point.
really? You make no sense...now marijauna (yes, this is how it's spelled) made him do it?
Video games made him do it? Pretty sure you'd need a PhD to figure out why this kid snapped....what you list helps absolutely nobody in trying to make sense of this senseless act.
ooops...marijuana...my bad...must have been the dirty bong water....
 @tha last shadow First of all, you're incoherent, secondly you don't even know how to spell marijuana. Guess what though, people used to shoot guns way back before there were even video games, you can't blame marijuana or video games for this.
 @pdxd why? i need to spell good? are teacher? or just the arrogance its on your face, you are to blind that you can't see the point of my opinion..but don't worries  i dont blame you the stupidity its usual in people, that comes with every human. :)
 @tha last shadowÂ
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Marijuana and violent video games are legal in Amsterdam and they don't have this problem, and Canadians have as many guns as we do and they don't do this.
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The interesting thing is that I think a stoned person can make a more cohesive argument than you have.
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We have a mean-spirited mentality as a nation. When we don't have a common enemy, we fight ourselves.
 @Playanekes Really?? then what do you think is the problem? arguments are alot even you will never know because you are not in their shoes, well maybe is because this nation is the number  to use drugs, teens have become very addictive to this sort of thing, do you think could be that a problem??? opinions matter every brain and opinion are different so??
 @tha last shadow Are you drunk? Your post is completely incoherent, and the point you are feebly trying to make about how smoking marijuana somehow leads to this kind of thing is stupid, unproven, and completely wrong. You need to go sleep it off somewhere.Â
 @Kennyboy i will sleep alot when i die, what about you??
 @tha last shadow Seek help.
 @brautigan all you can share???
last sadow:Â sounds like maybe YOU smoked too much dope!
 @iamtroglodite i'm really good listener and i like to share my opinion so whats yours???
 @tha last shadow Huh ? and Huh.. And what the hell ?
..no way to know the import of the misappropriation of his inheritance..certainly isn't a plus..and at a time when you've suffered a loss...doesn't paint a caring picture of the world..things get twisted in so many ways..just sad..
For starters Tami there were lots of things you might have done to prevent this, the first one that comes to mind is when you ripped your sons inheritance off from him, that is one devastating blow...Along the road of life the one thing that parents never want to do is lose the parental trust, in this case you did just that.. How sad for everyone involved..
 @dougrpdx okay I have to ask where was this information divulged?
Court documents show Tami Roberts misappropriated $18,000 that Jacob Roberts received in an inheritance from his grandmother when he was a young teen.
 @Bodagris Oregon live ..
 @Bodagris She is not the person portrayed here.. I won't comment further, but it really gave me a slow burn..
 @Bodagris  @dougrpdx seriously as a writer for an alternative news site im wondering as well.
 @dougrpdx ???
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@HarryJuku Get over yourself. For the last three days, we've been sorting through your anti-gun rhetoric, we get it.....you don't like guns. Now let it go and move on.
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 @Maximus  @HarryJuku You're not high, yet you can't spell.
 @HarryJuku If you're so concerned about moving on because you're scared of perps running around with stolen guns, then perhaps you should arm yourself. Because let me say this, their guns aren't going anywhere anytime soon. They'll continue to steal them or have them illegally shipped here from another country.
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@HarryJuku And that's a terrible tragedy. It's going to affect alot of people for a long time to come. You people alaways astound me.....can't you at least let the families bury their dead before you start the blame game...????
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And no....i'm not high...but I have serious doubts about you......
 @HarryJuku i guess he did,
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 @HarryJuku Neither did the guy that butchered my uncle with a knife, fool.
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I believe in having guns and I've never harmed another person with one. See how that works? Coulda. Didn't wanta.
 @HarryJuku So... how can we learn from this? He stole the gun from a friend's home. I'm a fanatic, but I'm also sane, trained, and work well under pressure.
@tha last shadow @Improprietous @HarryJuku last shadow: community colleges have some writing/reading courses you might want to look into....you'll have a better chance of making sense the next time you decide to post something...wow.
 @tha last shadow That made absolutely no sense whatsoever.
 @Improprietous  @HarryJuku carefully pression sometimes its really bad people start with depression with that kind of pression and then they say "i'm really mad i work so hard"  just you need to know that the brain  any moment of you life can change anytime any minute if you say i'm sane they said the same thing that the shooter they never though that he will could do that right?? just dont say that this water i will never drink, because you never know. Happy holidays.
 @HarryJuku Seriously!? Did you just say that you can't be trusted to control yourself? That the only thing stopping you from shooting someone is not having access to a gun? How immature. You need help.
 @HarryJuku  @Lips So Harry is some crazy breaks into your house in middle of the night and threatens to harm you.. how do you defend yourself? Call 911 and hide under the bed and home the bad guy doesn't find you? Lol. Any respectable family person would do more to safeguard there family then play roll over pacifist.Â
 @HarryJuku Then all of my guns and most of the other 310,000,000 guns in the USA must be broken because those guns haven't killed anyone.
 @HarryJuku Harry, you can't ''unmake'' the gun. You'll never rid the Earth of guns. If you look at the pattern, these mass shootings happen in schools, malls, theaters... these are places that guns aren't allowed. Is it so the shooter can kill more people before he's stopped? Before he stops himself? I don't know. Guns aren't just made to kill people. Sadly, at this point in time they are also made to stop people from killing people.
She is in pain. I hope she can get through all of this.
@RalphCramden I believe her too Ralph. I hope she can get over this and I hope she can get help if she needs it. I can't imagine what it would be like to be in her shoes....
 @Maximus Â
Some would blame her for her son's crimes but I have seen excellent parents with a really bad kid. Sometimes theres not telling why kids go bad even with a very good upbringing.
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In the interview she appeared to be medicated. I can only hope that she is being monitored so that she gets through this okay.
 @RalphCramden  @Maximus Have you been hijacked? I don't blame the mom for what her son did. He is ultimately responsible. Some stolen money and common family matters does not a killer make. HOWEVER.... I feel she is attempting to capitalize on what he's done, and hoping to profit from it. That memorial fund is way too telling, when devised by someone who stole money from a kid she calls son.
 @Maximus Â
That is my feeling also. She is facing reality and there is no hint of denial. She feels bad for the victims and would want to punish her son for his deeds if she could.
 @Maximus  @RalphCramden OregonLive says she was a major pothead and stole  and spent all of his $18,000 inheritance he was supposed to have from his grandmother. I think she was in denial more than a bit about why he wasn't talking to her for the last 4 years. I am sorry for her loss but it looks like she had a hand in it herself. : (
@RalphCramden She doesn't come across to me as a bad parent, looks can be decieving, but that's my first impression. The parents of Eric Harris, Dylan Klybold and Kip Kinkel were in denial. I don't get that from her. Would you agree..???
 @RalphCramden  @Maximus In some ways I'm feeling more sympathetic to the family that took him in when she booted him four years ago. His best friend is so devastated he's not giving interviews. They were in his life up to the minute. My heart breaks for them.