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Photos of shooting victims, Cindy Yuille, left, and Steven Forsyth, center, are posted on a police mall diagram along with a photo of gunman Jacob Taylor Roberts, at a press conference Wednesday Dec. 12, 2012 about the multiple shooting on Tuesday at Clackamas Town Center Mall in Portland, Ore. (AP Photo/Greg Wahl-Stephens)

The shock of learning your friend is a killer

BY Josh Kerns  on December 13, 2012 @ 11:38 am (Updated: 12:15 pm - 12/13/12 )

Rachel Burbank was as captivated by news of this week's mall shooting near Portland as much as anyone. But it really hit her hard when she found out the gunman who killed two before taking his own life was a friend she saw nearly everyday.

Burbank, the younger sister of KIRO Radio's Luke Burbank, spoke with The Andrew Walsh Show Wednesday night.

She'd heard about the shooting Tuesday and followed news of it closely, but when she went to bed police still hadn't identified the shooter. She was floored when she started surfing her Facebook feed Wednesday morning.

"It was totally surreal because I was cruising down reading stuff about the victims' families and everything and then it gets down to the suspect."

There was a picture of Jacob Tyler Roberts.

"It took me a second to register who and why I recognized him because I don't know what I was expecting to see, but it was not him."

Burbank says she was stunned to think the cute guy who worked at the gyro place next door was capable of such violence.

"I freaked out. I was like 'Oh my gosh. It can't really be him, but the name's right, the picture's right, it's obviously him.'"

Burbank says she'd seen him nearly everyday for the past year. They weren't romantically involved, but the pair had gone out drinking and played pool together several times. There was never any indication he was anything but a nice, cool young guy.

"My friends would always make fun of me because I would call him cute Jacob because he was very cute, attractive, and a really friendly guy."

They talked about "random stuff," nothing that stood out as strange.

"He was super-duper friendly and talkative and sweet, and he was a totally fun guy," she says.

Burbank is as baffled as anyone else. All she knows is the cute hipster who sported a few tattoos and loved watching old movies on VHS in the little gyro shop is a killer. As new details of the shooting and the discovery of his body in a mall stairwell continued emerging, the shock grew.

"It was tearing at me because I was like wow, that entire time, that kid that I know is in there."

Burbank says while she's not overcome with grief for the shooter, she does feel tremendous sadness for his family and the victims' families.

"That's got to be a whole pile of stuff to deal with, you know," she says.

Related: Oregon mall shooter writes on Facebook, 'I have lived one crazy life'

Josh Kerns, MyNorthwest.com Reporter
Josh Kerns is co-host of KIRO Radio's Seattle Sounds (Saturday nights 7-8) and a digital content producer for MyNorthwest.com.
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Comments (9)


  • Add A Comment

  • chellesbelles wrote...
    In for
    December 13, 2012 11:58 am
    her fifteen minutes of fame.
    { "Thumbs Up":"1","Thumbs Down":"-1" }
  • sghouse wrote...
    yeah
    December 13, 2012 1:04 pm
    next we'll be hearing from the McDonalds drive through worker who handed him a burger last week.
    { "Thumbs Up":"1","Thumbs Down":"-1" }
  • Paul Kersey wrote...
    to learn anything from this you must know how to speak airhead
    December 13, 2012 4:43 pm
    you know like I mean you know like maybe she could tell us what kind of culture her cute really friendly drinking buddy was into you know because people keep saying it is some kind of right wing gun culture that causes people to do this you know like they are all full of hate and everything and don't like Obama and stuff and racist and stuff you know and then they go out and get guns and stuff..huh.
    { "Thumbs Up":"1","Thumbs Down":"-1" }
  • Mike in Pioneer Square wrote...
    It's amazing
    December 13, 2012 5:18 pm
    ...how pathetic the majority of posters on this web site are. I blame Dori Monson.
    { "Thumbs Up":"1","Thumbs Down":"-1" }
  • sghouse wrote...
    hipster?
    December 13, 2012 9:02 pm
    hey "Mike in Pioneer Square" you seem like someone who can probably explain just exactly what is a "hipster"?

    Is it a disease or some sort of mental condition?

    { "Thumbs Up":"1","Thumbs Down":"-1" }
  • CupofJoe wrote...
    Hipster
    December 13, 2012 10:31 pm
    hip~ster: noun doosh, see Mike in Pioneer Square.
    { "Thumbs Up":"1","Thumbs Down":"-1" }
  • Ron_Spins wrote...
    It is amazing
    December 14, 2012 1:55 am
    I blame the Democrat's in the Senate for a lack of our nations realistic budget. We have not had a budget for more than 1000 days , the last budget that was passed was April 29, 2009.So the Democrat's want to raise taxes and not cut spending...Go Dori Monson!
    { "Thumbs Up":"1","Thumbs Down":"-1" }
  • CH wrote...
    ...how pathetic the majority of posters on this web site are. I blame Dori Monson . . . .
    December 14, 2012 4:13 am
    just putting out the baby food out for the republican munchkins on this site. Day time fox news.
    { "Thumbs Up":"1","Thumbs Down":"-1" }
  • CupofJoe wrote...
    I like to mix
    December 14, 2012 10:33 am
    my day time Fox with a little Rachel Maddow, the only real man on MSNBC.
    { "Thumbs Up":"1","Thumbs Down":"-1" }
  • { "Thumbs Up":"1","Thumbs Down":"-1" }