By Chuck Hustmyre

(Continued)

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Salt Lake City

According to Sulejmen Talovic's family, there was no sign anything was wrong with the teenager. He didn't seem depressed or upset over anything. There were no recent traumas in his life.

"Everything about him was nice," Talovic's father, Suljo Talovic, told The Salt Lake Tribune. "Everybody said so."

Neighbors said he was quiet and kept to himself.

Talovic had a minor juvenile criminal record and dropped out of school after his 16th birthday.

His cousin, Salih Omerovic, said Talovic often attended Friday services at the Al-Noor mosque on South 700th Street East in Salt Lake City.

Two months ago, Talovic got a full-time job at a uniform supply company. His boss, Trent Thorn, told Crime Library that Talovic worked from 8:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. on Monday, the day of the shootings.

According to police, Talovic drove to the Trolley Square mall, a 100-year-old renovated trolley barn, about 6:45 Monday night. Almost as soon as he stepped out of his car, he shot two people in the parking lot. One witness heard him shout, "Die, motherf——-."

Wearing a trench coat and a bandolier of ammunition, and carrying a backpack full of more ammunition and a backup pistol, Talovic strolled into the mall clutching a shotgun. As soon as he walked through the door, he shot someone else. At a gift shop, he shot four or five more people.

Witnesses say Talovic looked calm as he prowled the mall's ground floor, firing at anyone he saw. A merciless hunter bent on dealing out death with each pull of the trigger.

On a second floor balcony overlooking the main floor, off-duty Ogden, Utah police officer Kenneth Hammond was having an early Valentine's Day dinner with his pregnant wife, a police dispatcher. When Hammond heard the gunshots, he drew his .45-caliber pistol and told his wife to call 911.

Hammond found Talovic and opened fire on him, pinning the killer down until backup officers arrived. A few minutes later, Hammond and the other police officers unleashed a barrage of gunfire that killed Talovic.

At a press conference, Salt Lake City Police Chief Chris Burbank praised Officer Hammond's courage. "There is no question that his quick actions saved the lives of numerous other people," the chief said. "The suspect in this particular circumstance had one thing on his mind, and that was to kill a large number of people."

The question remains then, why did Sulejmen Talovic want to kill? Was he a calculating jihadist or an off-his-rocker nut job?

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Contact Chuck Hustmyre at chuck3174@yahoo.com

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