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Relative denies Islam drove Salt Lake killer
The profile of the Bosnian immigrant who gunned down five people at a shopping mall is filled with uncertainty. Neighbors say they rarely saw the lanky teenager, whose mother removed him from school at 16 to work. But family members agree on what Sulejman Talovic, 18, was not: He was not motivated by Islamic belief or an act of terrorism when he shot nine people, five fatally, before he was stopped by police. Trolley Square reopened Wednesday, less than 48 hours after the rampage, but some stores remained closed and plywood covered shattered windows. Bosnia's U.S. ambassador, Bisera Turkovic, planned to visit the city today in the search for answers to the shooting. Turkovic was scheduled to join fellow countrymen for lunch at the Bosna Restaurant and attend an evening memorial at the library. "We are Muslims, but we are not terrorists," the boy's aunt, Ajka Omerovic, said Wednesday. She rejected any religious motive for the shooting and said the family is as mystified as anyone in a city that logged just eight homicides in 2006. Authorities also are at a loss to figure out why Talovic committed the rampage and how he got his hands on a gun. The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives is investigating how Talovic got a .38-caliber pistol. He also had a shotgun, a bandolier of shotgun shells under his trench coat and a backpack full of ammunition. But it's the pistol that he wasn't legally allowed to possess. "You can buy long guns at 18. ... The handgun he shouldn't have had," said Lori Dyer, in charge of the local ATF office. Talovic lived with his parents and three younger sisters in a tiny ranch house on the west side, blocks from where a railroad yard and Interstate 15 slice through Salt Lake City. His father works long hours in construction.
Talovic worked for two months as a general laborer at Aramark Uniform Services, an industrial launderer and uniform-rental company, manager Trent Thorn said. He appeared for his regular shift on the day of the shooting. Talovic and his family moved to the U.S. after living as refugees in Bosnia for five years, people close to the family still living in Bosnia told the AP. He was only 4 when he and his mother fled their village of Talovici on foot after Serbian forces overran it in 1993, they said. "Many left the village, but only a few made it," said Murat Avdic, a family friend. Posted by: ryuge 2007-02-15 |
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