Little Known About Utah Mall Killer

When Sulejmen Talovic stepped out of his car at a crowded shopping mall and immediately began shooting people at random Monday night, no one knew it was coming and no one apparently knew who the 18-year-old was at all.

Neighbors of Talovic told the Salt Lake City Tribune that they rarely saw the teenage immigrant from Bosnia and considered him a loner.

"He never came out much. You just never really got to see him," John Buddensick, who lived a half block from Talovic told the newspaper.

I didn't know him," said LaVonda Hardman, who lived across the street from Talovic. "I'd never seen a teenage boy at that home."

With a bandolier of shotgun shells under his trench coat and a backpack of ammunition on his shoulder, Talovic stepped out of his car at the crowded Trolley Square shopping mall and immediately began shooting.

The 18-year-old gunman fired randomly at anyone in his line of sight, police said, trying to hit as many people as possible.

He killed five, wounded several others and would have slain many more, the police chief said, had not an off-duty officer jumped up from his seat at a restaurant and cornered the suspect. The two exhanged fire until other officers arrived and killed the assailant.

Talovic's parents, Suljo and Sabira, have yet to comment publicly on their son's actions and his death, but his aunt, Ajka Onerovic, emerged briefly from the family's house to say relatives had no idea why the young man attacked so many strangers. She said the family moved to Utah from war-torn Bosnia. More than 3,000 Bosnians have immigrated to Utah since the mid-1990s.

"He was a nice boy," Onerovic told the Tribune. "We want to know what happened, just like you guys."

A day after the shooting, Ken Hammond was hailed for his daring as investigators struggled to determine why the teenager went on the deadly rampage, targeting shoppers with a supremely calm look on his face.

When he heard gunfire, Hammond was having an early Valentine's Day dinner with his wife. He immediately put himself in harm's way.

"I don't think that I really had time to hesitate," Hammond said, with his wife, Sarita, on CBS News' The Early Show Wednesday. Hammond, who said he almost always carries a gun when he is off-duty, said of the situation, "I had to react and I had to react right now." I did "what I've been trained to do."

"There is no question that (Hammond's) quick actions saved the lives of numerous other people," Police Chief Chris Burbank said of Hammond Tuesday.

Police said it was not immediately clear who fired the shot that killed Talovic, who was armed with a shotgun and a .38-caliber pistol.

Investigators knew little about Talovic, except than he lived in Salt Lake City with his mother, the police chief said. He was enrolled in numerous city schools before withdrawing in 2004, the school district said.

Talovic drove to the Trolley Square shopping center — a century-old former trolley barn with winding hallways, brick floors and wrought-iron balconies, and immediately killed two people, followed by a third victim as he came through a door, Burbank said. Five other people were then shot in a gift shop, he said.

Four people who were wounded remained hospitalized Tuesday, two in critical condition, two in serious.

One of the wounded shoppers, Shawn Munns, 34, was alone outside the mall after a meal with his wife and two stepchildren when Talovic blasted him with a shotgun, according to sister-in-law Jodie Sparrow.

With dozens of pellets embedded in his side, Munns staggered into a restaurant and warned diners about the gunman, Sparrow said.

Outside the mall, candles and flowers were left as memorials to the victims, who were identified as Jeffrey Walker, 52, Vanessa Quinn, 29, Kirsten Hinkley, 15, Teresa Ellis, 29, and Brad Frantz, 24.

Hammond's boss, Ogden Police Chief Jon Greiner, said the state Senate wants to honor him.

"Thank goodness he was there," said Greiner, who is also a state senator. "You don't want to ever say it's good we were there and killed somebody, but it's probably good someone was there."

Accountant Jeff Barlow was on a date at another restaurant when he looked outside and saw the gunman firing from the hip.

"I thought it was some kind of joke — some kind of movie or stunt," Barlow said. "I didn't believe it was happening. And then I saw a man go down in a courtyard. I realized this was serious. These are real bullets flying around."

His date, Stephanie Bronson, added: "Just crazy. Absolutely terrifying."

David Dean, who owns a greeting-card store at the mall, said three or four people died inside his store, which was packed with Valentine's Day shoppers.

The mall is scheduled to reopen Wednesday morning, though it will be up to individual stores whether to resume business, a mall spokeswoman said.