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The Daily Insight

Omaha target shooting: Who was Joseph Jones? Why the suspect shot and killed by officer Brian Vanderheiden? Explained

Author

Emily Cortez

Published Jan 07, 2026

As per police, the person who was lethally shot by officials when he entered an Objective store in Omaha, Nebraska, conveying an AR-15-style rifle, had just obtained the weapon four days sooner at a Cabela’s outdoor supplies store. We should see about Omaha sport shooting exhaustively.

Who was Joseph Jones? As per court records, Joseph Jones, 32, an occupant of rural Omaha, who was perceived by police, had never been sentenced for a crime in Douglas Region, where Omaha is found. Also, records show that he had up until recently never had any cooperations with the neighborhood police.

The AR-15-style weapon utilized by Joseph Jones, who was lethally shot by police after he entered an Objective store in Omaha, Nebraska, was bought just four days beforehand at a Cabela’s outdoor supplies store, as per specialists. No other person was hurt. Larry Derksen Jr., Jones’ uncle, asserted that his nephew had schizophrenia and that his dysfunctional behavior had caused him to feel confined. Derksen told KETV-television, “My nephew went into Target. I accept he had zero desire to hurt anyone. He shot a lot of rounds,”

“He had an AR-15 under the steady gaze of policing there. Assuming that he had any goal of killing anyone, he would have. He would had opportunity and energy to do as such.”

A great many people with psychological instability are not savage, as per emotional wellness subject matter experts.

They are substantially more prone to be the survivors of brutal wrongdoing than the culprits, and openness to guns is a critical contributing component to the issue.

As indicated by Derksen, “this was unsurprising” and his nephew shouldn’t have at any point had a weapon.

Officer Involved Investigation at 17810 West Center Road (Target)
Tuesday, January 31, 2023
RB# AS76219

Updated press release with still images related to this incident can be found at

— Omaha Police Dept (@OmahaPolice) February 2, 2023


Omaha sport shooting: Joseph Jones supposedly terminated six shots inside the store in the wake of entering it around early afternoon on Tuesday, sending clients and workers escaping and concealing in bathroom slows down. He likewise conveyed 13 filled rifle magazines with him notwithstanding the weapon.

A Nebraska State Officer and two Omaha cops answered quickly to the roughly 30 calls for help that were overflowed into the 911 dispatch community. They moved toward Jones immediately and advised him to put down the weapon.

As indicated by specialists, police veteran Official Brian Vanderheiden discharged a shot at Jones, killing him. As per the delivery, Vanderheiden was placed on paid semi-voluntary vacation under departmental guidelines. Lt. Neal Bonacci of Omaha police said they are dealing with a course of events that would exhibit how long Jones was in the store before police showed up.

Police express that after the shooting, officials looked through the store multiple times prior to pronouncing it safe. Officials found discharge housings inside the shop during their examination.

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— Omaha Police Dept (@OmahaPolice) February 2, 2023

Other Shooting Cases: One lady was harmed in a taking shots at a Walmart in Evansville, Indiana, in January. That’s what police guaranteed notwithstanding the valiant demonstrations of a cop and a representative, it might have been a ton more terrible. In practically no time, police showed up and shot the shooter dead. In November, a Walmart director in Chesapeake, Virginia, shot stunningly inside a lunchroom, killing six individuals. There were six additional wounds.

Before the police came, the shooter shot and committed suicide. A 18-year-old Bison, New York, occupant who was looking for at a basic food item shop in a neighborhood with a high grouping of Individuals of color wound up shooting 10 individuals to death and harming three more. It was quickly assigned a disdain wrongdoing by specialists. In December 2007, a 19-year-old shooter killed eight individuals and himself in a taking shots at an Omaha Von Maur retail chain. That slaughter happened a little more than 15 years before the assault in Omaha.