Friends of Jacob Tyler Roberts, the man who allegedly started a seemingly spontaneous shooting rampage in an Oregon mall Tuesday, say the 22-year-old was the kind of guy that always put his friends first, and never seemed troubled, reported CBS News.
A former neighbor of Roberts said he liked to play video games, and was an all-around friendly person.
"We knocked on each other's door every morning. Every day to hang out, to talk," said Samantha Bennett, reported CBS.
"If me and my boyfriend were fighting, he was there to talk to me," Bennett said. "We would go to the bar together. I don't get it."
According to Bennett, Roberts once showed her a black handgun, which she believed he purchased legally. She says he dropped out of sight earlier in 2012 and that his phone was disconnected.
Tuesday Roberts entered the 1.4 million square-foot Clackamas Town Center mall through a Macy's department store wearing a white hockey mask and a bulletproof vest, armed with an AR-15 semiautomatic rifle with several fully loaded magazines of ammo, police said. He reportedly ran through the upper level of Macy's and began firing multiple shots, one right after another near the food court, according to witnesses.
Clackamas County Sheriff Craig Roberts said the rifle jammed during the attack, but Roberts managed to get it working again, and later shot himself. Authorities don't yet have a motive, but don't believe he was targeting specific people.
Roberts fatally shot two people - 45-year-old Steven Mathew Forsyth, and 54-year-old Cindy Ann Yuille - and wounded another, Kristina Shevchenko, who is currently in serious condition, according to authorities.
Witnesses reportedly heard Roberts saying, "I am the shooter," as he fired rounds inside the popular suburban mall several miles from downtown Portland.
"I can confirm the shooter is dead of an apparent self-inflicted gunshot wound," Lt. James Rhodes of the Clackamas County, Ore., Sheriff's Department said today. "By all accounts there were no rounds fired by law enforcement today in the mall."
"Jake was never the violent type," Roberts' ex-girlfriend, Hannah Patricia Sansburn, told ABC News. "His main goal was to make you laugh, smile, make you feel comfortable. You can't reconcile the differences.
"I hate him for what he did, but I can't hate the person I knew because it was nothing like the person who would go into a mall and go on a rampage," she said.
Another of his past girlfriends echoed her sentiment. Speaking with CNN, 21-year-old Brittany Curry said she dated Roberts for five months last year. They met through mutual friends in the Portland area, she said.
"I am in shock. I don't know what to feel," Curry said to CNN. "He was really a good guy. He was really happy. He put everybody before himself."
Curry said Roberts owned one gun, but she didn't want to elaborate, reported CNN.
According to Curry, Roberts told her his mother had died at childbirth, and he never met his father. He left his maternal aunt's home at age 14, Curry said.
"He raised himself. He was doing it all on his own," Curry said.
Roberts wanted to be a firefighter and was taking classes at Clackamas Community College, Curry said.
Whether it was intended or not is unclear, but Roberts' Facebook page now reads like chilling foreshadowing to Tuesday's tragedy. A work by infamous street artist Banksy appears at the top of his page: A "Follow Your Dreams" slogan painted on a wall is covered by a bold stamp reading "Cancelled" in red.
Roberts describes himself with a sense of humor, and says his friends are his real family on his Facebook page.
"Hey what's up guys my names Jake and I'm an alcoholic... Lol just kidding," Roberts wrote in the first line of his introduction. "If you were to ask someone that knows me they would probably say that I am a pretty funny person that takes sarcasm to the max."
"My friends are my family and I don't think that will ever change. I have done a lot for myself in the past year some good and some bad but I still press on. I like hanging out with my friends and having a good time maybe get a little drunk every now and then. I like to think of myself as a bit of an adrenaline junkie... Yup that's right I'm a junkie lol. But I'm just looking to meet new people and see the world," Roberts wrote.
"Shooting" was ominously among the interests Roberts listed on his page along with camping, sleeping, rafting, BMX, sushi and spending money.
"I'm the conductor of my choo choo train," Roberts wrote of himself. "I may be young but I have lived one crazy life so far."
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