Men lifted the casket from cinderblock supports and carried it uphill above the home, placing it at the edge of a stubble-filled cornfield. There, with blocks under the lower end to make the casket level, Sulejmanovic and two other imams led prayers. Men and boys stood in ranks, about 65 people long and four or five deep, and responded with ritual gestures, moving hands to face.

Meanwhile, women held services inside the village's homes.

Another shift, farther uphill, and the casket was at the graveside. Men crowded around as it was lowered into the grave, then took turns shoveling dirt from a mound until the earth was heaped over the grave.

In the mound stood a green wooden headboard with the Muslim crescent and star, the young man's name and the years of his birth and death. It is to be replaced with a stone marker in a year.

Except for a few reporters and photographers who stood, all squatted on the ground. An imam led a chant, and the mourners responded with a deep, rumbling, continuing bass chant. At the end, they sang a reverberating "Amin" (amen), which rumbled and rolled and died away.

As people stood talking or walked downhill from the cemetery, an elderly man tapped a friend from behind with his walking stick. The friend turned, smiled, and they shook hands.

Suljo Talovic said his wife, Sabira, was one of the women who fainted earlier during the service.

"She is not good (doing well)," he said. "She may need doctor, I don't know."

He expressed gratitude for the outpouring of support and concern for the family.

"Thank you, all in, like, Salt Lake and everybody in the United States," he said. To Bosnians and Americans who helped the family, he said, "I thank you guys. Thank you very much."

Later, Hasic translated when Suljo Talovic spoke in his native tongue: "He had more friends among Americans than he had before, because people understand the tragedy and what he's (enduring) right now."

Among those mentioned with gratitude were "the Mormons." He added that he "will never move from Salt Lake City."

Sulejmanovic commented, "I have read in the local newspapers that the people in America don't think this has any kind of religious connection or anything, and I was really happy when I saw that. We are not the people who wants to return bad with bad, and we want to return bad with good."

A cousin of Suljo Talovic, Redzo Talovic, had been a refugee in the city of Tuzla, Bosnia, but later returned to Talovici and rebuilt his home. He knew the family when Sulejman Talovic was born. His and Sulejmanovic's statements were translated by Hasic.

"He was 4 when he leave this place during the war. And I never saw him again," he said.

Asked what the child was like, he said, "As every other kid, he likes to play. A kid is a kid; simple, ordinary kid."

When the relatives saw news reports about the Trolley Square shootings, "we were completely in shock," he said, because the villagers are peaceful people.

"Nobody could imagine that something like that could happen," Redzo Talovic added. "I mean, he was a completely normal kid."

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E-mail: bau@desnews.com; mabrandy@desnews.com