Oregon mall gunman ID'd; motive unclear

Witnesses Kelly Lay and Mira Sytsma recount the terrifying moments when a man opened fired at Portland-area mall, killing two before turning the gun on himself. By Isolde Raftery, Ian Johnston and Becky Bratu, NBC News UPDATED at 1:12 p.m. ET: The masked gunman who killed two people and wounded a third in a shooting at an Oregon mall packed with holiday shoppers before committing suicide was identified Wednesday as Jacob Tyler Roberts, 22. The suspect opened fire with an AR 15 semi-automatic rifle that he had stolen from a person he knew, Clackamas County Sheriff Craig Roberts said at a morning news conference. "At this time we do not understand the motive of this attack," Roberts said, adding that the suspect apparently did not know any of his victims. EARLIER STORY: Witnesses who survived a terrifying shooting at an Oregon mall teeming with holiday shoppers described a scene of chaos and panic, and the sheriff said the carnage could have been much worse if the gunman's weapon hadn't apparently jammed. "He had a mission set forth to really take the lives of people within that mall," Clackamas County Sheriff Craig Robert said. The food court near the Macy's at the Clackamas Town Center near Portland was buzzing with holiday shoppers Tuesday afternoon when a masked gunman announced "I am the shooter" and  began randomly spraying bullets from a 223-caliber semi-automatic rifle, authorities and witnesses said. Two people were killed and a teenage girl was injured before the gunman, whose identity was not immediately released, fatally shot himself. "All of a sudden, I just heard a series of gunshots… boom, boom, boom, boom, boom… whatever the shooter was shooting at, they continued to shoot," shopper Bill Hoff told NBC station KGW. A law enforcement official said the shooter was 22 years old and had to be identified through fingerprints. He had no prior record, the official told NBC News. Mira Sytsma told NBC's Matt Lauer she was walking toward a store near the food court when she heard the first shots go off. "After the first couple of shots I had a feeling I knew what was happening," she said. Kelly Lay was in the food court when he heard "two loud booms," he told Lauer. Glancing to his left, he saw people running in panic. He ducked and hid behind a pillar, where two elderly women – including one in a wheelchair – had already taken shelter. Clackamas County Sheriff Craig Roberts discusses the gunman who opened fire at a Portland-area mall, saying it "looked to be a random shooting." "As soon as I heard bullets hitting behind me, the wall, seeing it hit the tiles, basically the food signs above… and seeing the tiles break around me, I kind of got in fear and scared for my life," Lay said. He saw people running toward the exit and told the women to do the same. After helping the woman in a wheelchair, Lay took off running. Girl, 15, shot in Oregon mall cheats death twice Sytsma saw one of the gunman's victims lying on the ground about 50 feet away from where she stood by a kiosk. Turning her head away from the victim, she caught a glimpse of the shooter. "I couldn't really see his eyes," she said. "I felt like I looked right at him and it was pretty scary to see him face to face like that." Sytsma and three other women ran for cover inside a store. People in line to get their photos taken with Santa immediately dove for cover, KGW reported, while others hid in break rooms and bathrooms. The mall Santa, Brance Wilson, said he was about to invite the next child onto his lap when the shots rang out upstairs. He said he  instead dove for the floor and kept his head down. "I heard two shots and got out of the chair. I thought a red suit was a pretty good target," said the 68-year-old Wilson, The Associated Press reported. Macy's employee Mariah Saldana said the gunman was wearing a white mask. He did not appear to be targeting anyone in particular, Sheriff Roberts told NBC's Savannah Guthrie. "It really looked as though it was a random shooting, really anybody that was in his line of sight, basically," Roberts said. The gunman fired up to 60 shots, according to The Oregonian, and the sheriff said the weapon likely jammed at some point, perhaps sparing more shoppers. The injured teen, Kristina Shevchenko, 15, was in serious condition at Oregon Health & Science University Hospital on Wednesday after undergoing surgery. Roberts said their thoughts and prayers went out to the victims and their families. "For all of us, the mall is supposed to be a place we can all take our families, feel comfortable, this is the holidays … these things are never supposed to happen. We have a young lady at the hospital fighting for her life right now," he said. More content from NBCNews.com: Amid protests, Michigan passes anti-union 'right to work' measures Gay student asks Justice Scalia to defend his 'bestiality' comments Marijuana sales? Lots of obstacles still to weed out in Washington, Colorado California exodus as thousands quit state for Texas, Ariz., elsewhere Banking giant HSBC to pay record $1.9 billion in money-laundering case Video: Massive gas line blaze caught on camera Follow US news from NBCNews.com on Twitter and Facebook

Facebook overhauls its privacy controls

Among Facebook's new privacy features will be the ability to request photos of you be removed entirely from the site. Facebook announces a major privacy-control update Users will get a tool that asks for photos to be removed from site Privacy tools will be accessible from the top of every page Changes will start rolling out to users over next few weeks (CNN) -- Facebook announced a major overhaul to its privacy controls Wednesday, adding a handful of features while simplifying and clarifying the ways users can already tweak their accounts. The changes, which will roll out over the next few weeks, include a new tool that lets users ask for photos of them to be removed from the site. Also being upgraded is a tool that lets users see what other people can -- and can't -- see on their Facebook pages. In addition, users will get more control over the apps they enable on the site by gaining the ability to grant permission for some access requests but deny others. Facebook says the changes are designed to help users better control, and understand, the information they're sharing on a site with roughly 1 billion accounts. "We deeply believe that surprises are bad," said Sam Lessin, Facebook's director of product development. "When users are surprised, no one wins." During its rise from dorm-room project to the world's largest social network, Facebook's most persistent complaints from users have centered on privacy. Online privacy advocates and even elected officials have objected on occasion to how Facebook handles user data. The company has consistently argued that appropriate privacy tools are in place, although Lessin acknowledged they haven't always been clear or easy to find. "It was pretty subtle, and we believe it wasn't clear enough to users," he said. Here's a look at some of the updates, which Lessin compared to some of the site's biggest changes in its eight-year history: A "Request and Removal" tool for photos Facebook users could already click to ask other users to remove tags of them on photos. But the new tool lets them request that photos be removed from the site entirely, and it gives the recipient the ability to do so with a single click. It also gives users the ability to select a reason for the request without having to begin a potentially embarrassing conversation themselves. "If you don't want something on Facebook, it shouldn't be on Facebook," Lessin said. "We need to give you the tools to address that in a straightforward way." More specific app permissions Currently, approving an app on Facebook requires agreeing to a sometimes intimidating list of permissions for the app to do things like access your Friends list and post on your Timeline. New changes, which will roll out first on Apple's iOS mobile platform, let users give an app basic permissions to start with and then approve other, specific access requests when the app needs them. Not all apps will move to the new model, however. Perhaps most significantly, games won't change. Privacy shortcuts A frequent complaint among privacy advocates has been that the controls that exist on Facebook are hard for the average user to find and understand. Under Facebook's changes, privacy tools will be accessible from the toolbar. "[T]he privacy settings are confounding even for the most experienced digerati," danah boyd, a social-media researcher and privacy advocate, wrote for CNN during a 2010 privacy update. "People should be able to understand Facebook's changes and have choices available that allow them to make appropriate decisions." Under the new changes, there will be a privacy icon on Facebook's blue toolbar that takes users to the site's most used privacy tweaks ("Who can see my stuff?" "Who can contact me?" "How do I stop someone from bothering me?"). Help Center content for privacy will also be simplified, with tools that are currently divided between the site's Privacy and Security sections pulled together in one place. "Obviously, security and privacy are deeply tied together," Lessin said. "We knew that they were related, and we wanted to call that out." Expanded Activity Log The Activity Log, rolled out last year, lets users manage the information that appears on their Timeline. The updated version includes new navigation tools and will let users more easily see photos, status updates or other posts that may have been removed from Timeline but still appear elsewhere on Facebook. It includes simplified tools to let users "view as" other people (a feature that already exists) to see whether they've hidden or displayed posts the way they wanted. Want to keep some Facebook activity hidden from your grandmother or your boss? This tool is for you. Lessin said new messages will begin appearing on users' pages, explaining the changes as well as more clearly outlining how existing privacy tools work. He said Facebook will also be killing a little-used "Who can look up my Timeline by name?" tool, saying new features will make doing so easier.

Sheriff: Oregon mall gunman was on 'a mission' to kill

Witnesses Kelly Lay and Mira Sytsma recount the terrifying moments when a man opened fired at Portland-area mall, killing two before turning the gun on himself. By NBC News staff Witnesses who survived a terrifying shooting at an Oregon mall teeming with holiday shoppers described a scene of chaos and panic, and the sheriff said the carnage could have been much worse if the gunman's weapon hadn't apparently jammed. "He had a mission set forth to really take the lives of people within that mall," Clackamas County Sheriff Craig Robert said. The food court near the Macy's at the Clackamas Town Center near Portland, Ore., was buzzing with holiday shoppers Tuesday afternoon when a masked gunman announced "I am the shooter" and  began randomly spraying bullets a 223-caliber semi-automatic rifle, authorities and witnesses said. Two people were killed and a teenage girl was injured before the gunman, whose identity was not immediately released, fatally shot himself. "All of a sudden, I just heard a series of gunshots… boom, boom, boom, boom, boom… whatever the shooter was shooting at, they continued to shoot," shopper Bill Hoff told NBC station KGW. A law enforcement official said the shooter was 22 years old and had to be identified through fingerprints. He had no prior record, the official told NBC News. Two people shot to death at mall in suburban Portland, Oregon; gunman also dies Mira Sytsma told NBC's Matt Lauer she was walking toward a store near the food court when she heard the first shots go off. "After the first couple of shots I had a feeling I knew what was happening," she said. Kelly Lay was in the food court when he heard "two loud booms," he told Lauer. Glancing to his left, he saw people running in panic, and he duck and hid behind a pillar, where two elderly women – including one in a wheelchair – had already taken shelter. Clackamas County Sheriff Craig Roberts discusses the gunman who opened fire at a Portland-area mall, saying it "looked to be a random shooting." "As soon as I heard bullets hitting behind me, the wall, seeing it hit the tiles, basically the food signs above… and seeing the tiles break around me, I kind of got in fear and scared for my life," Lay said. He saw people running toward the exit and told the women to do the same. After helping the woman in a wheelchair, Lay took off running. Girl, 15, shot in Oregon mall cheats death twice Sytsma saw one of the gunman's victims lying on the ground about 50 feet away from where she stood by a kiosk. Turning her head away from the victim, she caught a glimpse of the shooter. "I couldn't really see his eyes," she said. "I felt like I looked right at him and it was pretty scary to see him face to face like that." Sytsma and three other women ran for cover inside a store. Several witnesses reported hearing the suspect announce, "I am the shooter," before he began firing, triggering panic among an estimated 10,000 shoppers at the mall. People in line to get their photos taken with Santa immediately dove for cover, KGW reported, while others hid in break rooms and bathrooms. The mall Santa, Brance Wilson, said he was about to invite the next child onto his lap when the shots rang out upstairs. He said he  instead dove for the floor and kept his head down. "I heard two shots and got out of the chair. I thought a red suit was a pretty good target," said the 68-year-old Wilson, The Associated Press reported. Macy's employee Mariah Saldana said the gunman was wearing a white mask and wielded a weapon that police said had a high-capacity magazine. He did not appear to be targeting anyone in particular, Clackamas County Sheriff Craig Roberts told NBC's Savannah Guthrie. "It really looked as though it was a random shooting, really anybody that was in his line of sight, basically," Sheriff Roberts said. He added that the man has been identified but his name will not be released until later. The gunman fired up to 60 shots, The Oregonian reported. The sheriff said the weapon likely jammed at some point, sparing more shoppers from the bullets. The injured teen, Kristina Shevchenko, 15, was in serious condition at Oregon Health & Science University Hospital on Wednesday after undergoing surgery. Roberts said their thoughts and prayers went out to the victims and their families. "For all of us, the mall is supposed to be a place we can all take our families, feel comfortable, this is the holidays … these things are never supposed to happen. We have a young lady at the hospital fighting for her life right now," he said. More content from NBCNews.com: Amid protests, Michigan passes anti-union 'right to work' measures Gay student asks Justice Scalia to defend his 'bestiality' comments Marijuana sales? Lots of obstacles still to weed out in Washington, Colorado California exodus as thousands quit state for Texas, Ariz., elsewhere Banking giant HSBC to pay record $1.9 billion in money-laundering case Video: Massive gas line blaze caught on camera Follow US news from NBCNews.com on Twitter and Facebook

2 victims, gunman killed in Oregon mall shooting

Witnesses Kelly Lay and Mira Sytsma recount the terrifying moments when a man opened fired at Portland-area mall, killing two before turning the gun on himself. Clackamas County Sheriff Craig Roberts discusses the gunman who opened fire at a Portland-area mall, saying it "looked to be a random shooting." NBC's Mike Taibbi reports from Clackamas, Oregon, where a gunman opened fire inside a mall, killing two people and badly injuring a third before he killed himself. By Ian Johnston and Isolde Raftery, NBC News Updated at 7:58 a.m. ET: A masked gunman killed two people and seriously injured another in a Portland, Ore., mall Tuesday, sending Christmas shoppers and people waiting in line to see Santa Claus running for cover. The gunman, described as an adult male, took his own life after spraying bullets around the mall, said Lt. James Rhodes, of the Clackamas County Sheriff's Office. The shooting happened around 3:20 p.m. local time (6:20 p.m. ET) in the food court near Macy's, triggering panic among an estimated 10,000 shoppers at the Clackamas Town Center. Several witnesses reported hearing the suspect announce, "I am the shooter," before he began firing. "All of a sudden, I just heard a series of gunshots… boom, boom, boom, boom, boom… whatever the shooter was shooting at, they continued to shoot," shopper Bill Hoff told NBC station KGW. A young woman, Kristina Shevchenko, was rushed to the hospital in "critical" condition, according to a family statement. After surgery, the 15-year-old was upgraded to "stable" condition. Police agencies were able to "basically hunt down, find this guy" in record time, Sheriff Craig Roberts told NBC station KGW. When the shooting began, people in line to get their photos taken with Santa immediately dove for cover, KGW reported. A woman who answered the phone at a Chipotle restaurant in the mall Tuesday told NBC News that someone ran in and yelled, "It's a shooting, it's a shooting." She said employees shut the doors, and the mall was crawling with police. Macy's employee Mariah Saldana told KGW that she was sitting by the door "watching what was going on and then some guy just ran by in a white mask and an assault rifle and then I look out because I hear a few shots and he's … and he's sitting there and he's pointing the gun at some people." "We ran to the fitting room, grabbed some people then ran out to the back exit to get out of there," she added. "It was just shot after shot after shot. It was terrible. It was like a massacre," witness Kira Rowland told the station. Pedro Garcia, 24, told the Oregonian that he had been on his way to the Panera Bread Co. to buy sandwiches when he heard at least six shots. "I could smell the gunpowder," Garcia said. "That's what pretty much what made me run." Rhodes said some people had hidden in break rooms and bathrooms in the mall and that teams of police were working their way through the mall to bring them out. He said the number of people in the area making calls had overwhelmed cellphone towers. Rhodes said police do not believe there was a second shooter. News reporters interviewed the mall Santa, who promised he would return to Clackamas Town Center on Wednesday. Roberts said their thoughts and prayers went out to the victims and their families. "For all of us, the mall is supposed to be a place we can all take our families, feel comfortable, this is the holidays … these things are never supposed to happen. We have a young lady at the hospital fighting for her life right now," he said. More content from NBCNews.com: Amid protests, Michigan passes anti-union 'right to work' measures Gay student asks Justice Scalia to defend his 'bestiality' comments Marijuana sales? Lots of obstacles still to weed out in Washington, Colorado California exodus as thousands quit state for Texas, Ariz., elsewhere Banking giant HSBC to pay record $1.9 billion in money-laundering case Video: Massive gas line blaze caught on camera Follow US news from NBCNews.com on Twitter and Facebook

Girl, 15, shot in Ore. mall cheats death twice

By Elizabeth Chuck, NBC News A teenager from Oregon has survived her second brush with death in just the past few months. Kristina Shevchenko, 15, was rushed to a hospital Tuesday in critical condition after a masked gunman sprayed bullets around a suburban Portland, Ore., mall during the height of holiday shopping season. After surgery, she had been upgraded from critical to stable condition, according to a statement from her family. Just a few months ago, Shevchenko survived another tragedy: a head-on car crash. "[T]he Shevchenko family were the survivors of a fatal head-on collision. Kristina, 15 years old, was also in this crash. One of nine that were in the vehicle," the family's statement said. The family described Shevchenko as a "happy child" who is "active in church," and said "by the mercy of God she is now in stable condition, but has a long road to recovery." Shevchenko, who had been with a friend when she was shot, regularly walked through the mall around the time of the shooting -- which happened at about 3:20 p.m. on Tuesday -- to get home from school, her family said.  The motive for the shooting, which sent Christmas shoppers and people waiting in line to see Santa running for cover, wasn't clear. Several witnesses reported hearing the suspect announce, "I am the shooter," before he began firing. "All of a sudden, I just heard a series of gunshots… boom, boom, boom, boom, boom… whatever the shooter was shooting at, they continued to shoot," shopper Bill Hoff told NBC station KGW. Macy's employee Mariah Saldana told KGW that she was sitting by the door "watching what was going on, and then some guy just ran by in a white mask and an assault rifle, and then I look out because I hear a few shots and he's … and he's sitting there and he's pointing the gun at some people." More content from NBCNews.com: Amid protests, Michigan passes anti-union 'right to work' measures Gay student asks Justice Scalia to defend his 'bestiality' comments Marijuana sales? Lots of obstacles still to weed out in Washington, Colorado California exodus as thousands quit state for Texas, Ariz., elsewhere Banking giant HSBC to pay record $1.9 billion in money-laundering case Video: Massive gas line blaze caught on camera Follow US news from NBCNews.com on Twitter and Facebook

Wait is over for pope's Twitter fans

Pope Benedict sends the first tweet from his personal Twitter account "I am pleased to get in touch with you through Twitter," he says The pontiff had around 700,000 followers on his English account within an hour of his first tweet He also sent the first tweet for the official Vatican news site last year (CNN) -- The wait is over for Pope Benedict XVI's many Twitter followers. Taking a bold step into the world of 21st century social media, the pontiff issued the much-anticipated first tweet from his personal account Wednesday morning, using the handle @Pontifex -- meaning "bridge builder" in Latin. "Dear friends, I am pleased to get in touch with you through Twitter. Thank you for your generous response. I bless all of you from my heart," it read. He followed up with two more tweets within minutes. What the Pope will tweet "How can we celebrate the Year of Faith better in our daily lives?" asked one. The answer: "By speaking with Jesus in prayer, listening to what he tells you in the Gospel and looking for him in those in need." An hour after his first tweet, the pope had around 700,000 followers on his main English account. He is also tweeting in other languages, including Spanish, Portuguese and Arabic. A Vatican official told CNN the pope would compose the tweets for the new account himself. But while the pontiff pressed the button to send his very first tweet himself, others are expected to send future tweets on his behalf. The secretary of the Pontifical Council for Social Communications, Monsignor Paul Tighe, told Vatican Radio that the sending of the first tweet was "an extraordinary moment." The attention it sparked within the "Twitterverse" was quite impressive, he said, with more than 2,000 retweets in under two minutes. Vatican officials said last week that anyone could send in a question to the pope's personal account via the hashtag #askpontifex or #B16. Pope Benedict has some previous experience at tweeting, having launched the official Vatican news site on Twitter, @news_va_en, in June last year. Other religious leaders have found great success with Twitter. The 140-character limit for tweets allows for short messages, perfect for small verses of scripture or inspiration. The Dalai Lama (@DalaiLama), Rick Warren (@RickWarren), Joel Osteen (@JoelOsteen), and scores of other religious leaders utilize the site to spread their messages. A commentary written by Vatican spokesman the Rev. Federico Lombardi for Vatican Radio last week said: "140 characters -- the number contained in a tweet -- are quite a few. Most of the verses of the Gospel have less; the beatitudes are much shorter. A little concision isn't bad." He added that while short messages on Twitter could not carry the whole teachings of the Catholic Church, they would help spread the word to those who wanted to hear. "Of course the world will not be saved by tweets but among a billion baptised Catholics and among the seven billion people of the world; several million people will be able to feel the Pope is closer in this way too, hearing him say a word for them, a spark of wisdom to bear in their minds and hearts and to share with their twitter friends," he wrote. "A new service of the Gospel." While Benedict is the first Catholic pope to take to Twitter, he isn't the first twitterized pope. That honor goes to His Holiness Pope Tawadros II, the 118th pope of the Coptic Church of Egypt. But Pope Tawadros has around 6,300 Twitter followers; Benedict had tens of thousands on his first day out. John Paul II, who preceded Benedict, was the first pontiff to use the Internet, and the 20th century saw a string of other milestones for popes using technology to reach the masses. Pope Pius XI made the first papal radio broadcast in 1931. His successor, Pope Piux XII, made the first papal television appearance in 1946. CNN's Marilia Brocchetto, Eric Marrapodi and Ben Wedeman contributed to this report.

Cops: Doctor had 1,000 child porn images

View more videos at: http://nbclosangeles.com. By Jane Yamamoto, NBCLosAngeles.com A California doctor was arrested Tuesday on a warrant accusing him of possessing about 1,000 images of child pornography on a computer he used at work. Dr. Pete Thomas, of Coastline Podiatry in Santa Ana, Orange County, turned himself in to a judge when an arrest warrant was issued for him, Santa Ana police Cpl. Anthony Bertagna said. The judge sent Thomas to police, where he surrendered himself and was booked on one count of felony possession of child pornography, Bertagna said. He was out on $50,000 bail Tuesday night. Read more from NBCLosAngeles.com Thomas, 58, of Long Beach, came under suspicion when a computer technician spotted the questionable material on his computer while installing new printing software on the office's system, Bertagna said. Some images allegedly depict children from 7 years old to their early teens engaging in sex acts with other minors or adults, Bertagna said. Police don't believe Thomas had any contact with the children in the photos.