Talovic's girlfriend says he anticipated 'happiest day'

The day before he killed five people and wounded four at Trolley Square, Sulejman Talovic told the girl who loved him that the next day would be the happiest of his life.

Monika, a 17-year-old fellow refugee from Bosnia who now lives in Amarillo, Texas, did not know what he meant. (At her request, the Deseret Morning News is not using her last name.)

"His exact words were, 'You're going to be mad at me, but ... tomorrow's supposed to be the happiest day of my life."'

She asked him about that statement and he replied, "Oh, no, you should be happy."

"And I was like, 'So what does it involve?' He goes, 'It involves everything but you."'

She could not imagine he was talking about his last day. His shotgun-and-pistol rampage ended when police officers killed him.

"I thought he was going to have a child or something like that," she said.

Talovic had courted a girlfriend almost a year before, she said, and she thought the girl might be having his child, although he never said so. Actually, that wasn't the case, Monika added.

Monika was interviewed by telephone on Tuesday and Wednesday. She is home-schooled and works during the day.

Monika and the 18-year-old Talovic "met" long distance on Jan. 28, introduced through a relative of his and a relative of hers who happened to know each other.

They began talking incessantly on the telephone, day and night. They talked every day, always for hours. She said the shortest conversation they had was on Feb. 11, the day before the shooting — and that discussion went on for five hours.

"He was a funny person. He liked to joke a lot," Monika said.

Often he would call her about 6 p.m. and they would talk until 3, 4 or 5 a.m.

He was going to make plans to visit her in Amarillo, she said. That was supposed to happen on March 12. Meanwhile, they had exchanged photographs via cell phone and had discussed marriage.

"I didn't know when or where or anything like that, though we did talk about it," she said. Both felt serious about marriage, she believes.

Talovic had "two or three" friends, according to Monika. She did not know their names. "He talked about friends, but he never mentioned names."

He had friends at work and had had friends at the first school he attended in Utah, Monika said.

Talovic also knew one man through his mosque in Utah.

"I don't know if he was his friend, but he liked to talk to him," she said. They only saw each other during services at the mosque. "They only saw each other like three or four times."

Asked if that person could have influenced Talovic to carry out the shootings, she said, "I don't really think so, no."

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