Need to belong: Trolley gunman remembered as a lonely youth with few friends

Sulejman Talovic apparently had a desperate need to belong.

Those who knew him recall a lanky teenager who wanted to be accepted, while keeping his feelings to himself. He had few friends and talked mostly about "normal school stuff."

"I think he was just lonely," said Enes Kadic, who went to school with Talovic in the seventh grade.

Talovic is expected to be buried Monday near Sarajevo, in his homeland of Bosnia-Herzegovina. His parents, Suljo and Sabira Talovic, will fly there for the funeral.

In an interview with the Deseret Morning News Monday, the family said they were thankful to the many Utahns who responded kindly to them in their grief over the slayings.

"They understand our pain," said Ajka Omerovic, Sulejman's aunt. "We're just realizing that we have to continue our life."

Kadic is stunned that the 18-year-old would go on a shooting rampage inside the Trolley Square mall, killing five and wounding four others before dying in a shootout with police.

"I still cannot believe it was him," he said. "It's pretty crazy to me he did that. He's the last person on Earth I thought would do that."

His eighth-grade math teacher at Hillside Intermediate School remembers him as a lower-end-of-average student who only did about half his work. Virginia Lee said Talovic had a need for social approval.

"That was higher on his agenda," she said. "He wanted to belong."

Violent video games?

Kadic described Talovic as a quiet boy who wasn't very talkative. He said Talovic kept mostly to himself and didn't leave his house after school. At least once a week, however, Kadic would convince his friend to watch movies at his house or play video games at Talovic's house.

"Combat games, fighting games, Super Mario ... " Kadic said, recalling the types of video games they would play.

Talovic also seemed to like movies with violence, he said.

"He liked watching fighting movies. He liked watching those fist-fighting movies and movies where they shoot each other. He liked watching those type of movies," Kadic said.

In hindsight, Kadic believes Talovic did seem to have a fascination with violent video games and movies. Although Kadic claims to have played video games in Talovic's home, police said that when they searched the home they found the family did not own a video game system, any games or a computer.

Police said they are still investigating the shooting spree and trying to learn a motive.

"We're making progress," Salt Lake City Police Chief Chris Burbank said Friday. "I feel we're getting somewhere, but I have no answers to give out right now."