Von Maur Victim’s Son Speaks Out One Year Later

This Friday will mark the one year anniversary of that tragedy that left 9 people dead, including the shooter.

A year later many families are still coping with the loss of their loved ones.

Channel 8 sat down with Steve Scharf, the son of Gary Sharf who was considered a hero during this tragedy, his father actually made the first 911 call.

He told Channel 8 the past year has been tough but that he's learned a lot about himself.

December 5th 2007 is a day that changed many people's lives.

19 year old Robert Hawkins gunned down 8 people in the Omaha Von Maur store and then turned the gun on himself.

One of those victims was Gary Scharf, who died after pulling a woman off an escalator, away from the shots.

Now almost a year later, his son Steve says it's still hard.

“It's been tough, it hasn't been a good year, I don't know if it'll be any easier going into the future but I sure hope so.”

After his father's death, Steve, a junior at UNL, knew he needed to do something to help out.

“I got involved in Teammates because I felt like a lot of the difficulties in Robert Hawkins's life could have been prevented, it seems to make sense that the more people who are there to support you as a youth in difficult times can help.”

Scharf admits he was fortunate to have such dedicated parents, “I miss, I think its two things; his corny jokes, that sounds really funny, but yeah his corny jokes and I miss his advice.”

That advice is something he hopes to pass on to younger kids and to continue his father's legacy.

“I feel like it's important to accentuate the positive and not dwell on the negative and things that we can't fix, nothing will bring dad back so we just need to focus on making the community better.”

And even though its been a year, his death is still hard to grasp.

“I'd do anything to have it all be different in the end, I wish dad could have survived.”

Channel 8 asked Scharf how he found out about the shootings and he told us he read an article online but never for a second thought his dad would be in the store.

He told Channel 8 he talked to his dad a little bit before that and that he was able to tell him that he loved him, something Scharf says is cool.