A child of violence: Talovic survived genocide

Deseret Morning News graphic    Bosnia and Herzegovina

As a little boy in Bosnia-Herzegovina, Sulejman Talovic hid in fear from the Serb military forces who were slaughtering Muslim men and boys as war and genocide ravaged his country.

Years later, the 18-year-old slaughtered five people in Salt Lake City's Trolley Square mall before dying in a shootout with police officers.

A world away, those who knew him say he was an "ordinary kid" with dreams of America, and they are unable to comprehend that he could have committed such a crime.

"I know all Talovic family," said Omer Johic, who was a neighbor of the Talovic family in the Bosnian village of Cerska, near Srebrenica. "Everybody are nice, quiet and fine people, and I just cannot believe that Sulejman has been able to kill those people."

But neighbors also acknowledged that the war in Bosnia likely left its mark on the boy. During the war, the family lived for five years as refugees in Bosnia and spent almost a year in the mountains hiding from the Serb military forces, neighbors said.

Up to 200,000 people were killed and 1.8 million others lost their homes in Bosnia's 1992-95 war.

"I don't know what happened in USA," Johic said. "Maybe he started to use the drugs."

Outside Talovic's home in the working-class Fairpark neighborhood of Salt Lake City, his family struggled to provide answers.

"What happened to Sulejman, we have no idea," said his aunt, Ajka Omerovic. "He was nice boy."

Speaking to reporters in broken English, Omerovic offered condolences to the families of the people who Talovic killed.

"The reason why I am talking to you is to let know, all the other families, to let know we are so sorry and our hearts is with them," she said Wednesday. "I hope they can understand that we are sorry, too. We wish that something like that never, ever happen."

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