Salt Lake City Killer Identified

Tue, Feb 13, 2007 at 2:41:46 pm PST

The gunman who committed mass murder at a Salt Lake City mall has been identified as an 18-year-old Bosnian. (Hat tip: LGF readers.)

Sudden jihad syndrome?

Police Tuesday identified the gunman accused in Monday night’s Trolley Square shooting as Sulejman Talovic, an 18-year-old Bosnian refugee who lived in Salt Lake City.

Salt Lake City Police Chief Chris Burbank said Talovic drove his car to the mall, parked in the west parking terrace and encountered two people who he shot before entering the mall.

There, he encountered a female who also was shot right away, then went into a gift shop where there were five people, all of whom the young man shot. Moving through the mall, the gunman tried to shoot others, Burbank said. The chief said he could not say now how many shots were involved in the entire episode.

Burbank praised an unnamed Ogden police officer who took action at the mall to intervene in the incident, and praised the many law enforcement and other agencies that responded quickly and professionally to the crisis.

Until Salt Lake police arrived, it was “basically a shoot-out between the Ogden individual and this individual,” Burbank said.

“As you can see, this individual was well-prepared,” Burbank said, apparently referring to the young man’s backpack filled with ammunition “He had one purpose.”