From Deseret News archives:

Talovic motive elusive

Isolating reason for actions is tricky, chief says

Published: Saturday, April 7, 2007 12:02 a.m. MDT
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The only one who apparently had some kind of clue is a 17-year-old Bosnian refugee living in Amarillo, Texas. Monika (who asked the Deseret Morning News not to use her last name) had an over-the-phone relationship with Talovic. The night before the Trolley Square massacre, she spoke with him. Talovic told Monika she was going to be mad at him the next day.

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

Killing spree

On Feb. 12, Talovic worked his regular shift from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. at Aramark Uniform Services, an industrial laundry facility. He rolled up recently cleaned floor mats. Talovic had been on the job since December, working as a production-line general laborer.

"He pretty much stayed to himself," Aramark general manager Trent Thorn said in a February interview.

After work, Talovic went home.

His father, Suljo Talovic, told the Deseret Morning News in an earlier interview that he came home from his construction job and encountered his son. They both went to shower.

"I go in bathroom, he go other bathroom," he said in broken English.

Sulejman then went into his bedroom while his father watched TV in the living room. When the news broke about the Trolley Square shootings, Suljo Talovic said he looked outside and noticed his son's car was gone.

Story continues below
Sulejman Talovic parked his green Mazda 626 in the Trolley Square parking terrace. Wearing a brown overcoat, a bandolier of shotgun shells around his waist and a backpack full of ammunition, the young man stepped out of his car and encountered Jeffrey Walker, 52, and his 16-year-old son Alan "AJ" Walker.

Armed with a 12-gauge shotgun and a .38-caliber handgun, Talovic raised the shotgun toward the Walkers.

"My dad said, 'Oh my gosh,"' AJ recalled in an interview with the Deseret Morning News last week. "He did it so quickly."

AJ was shot in the head and ankle. His father was shot in the back, shoulder and head. Jeffrey Walker was killed.

Talovic moved closer to the mall, wounding Shawn Munns, 34. Inside the mall, he killed Vanessa Quinn, 29, outside the Bath and Body Works store. Moving into the Cabin Fever card and novelty shop, he killed Teresa Ellis, 29; Brad Frantz, 24; and Kirsten Hinckley, 15. Hinckley's mother, Carolyn Tuft, 44, was wounded. So was Stacy Hanson, 53, who remains hospitalized.

Burbank said Talovic may not have been very experienced with the guns.

"From the distance that you are, you don't have to be pretty good," he said.

The police chief confirmed to the Deseret Morning News that Talovic did indeed shoot — and hit people — with the .38-caliber handgun. He would not be more specific, saying it was out of respect for the victims.

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