Ajka Omerovic

"Oh, it's hard, it's very hard. I used to love the Valentine's Day, and the hearts in the windows and everything. And now, this year it's just like I hate it like never before because it reminds me (of Sulejman Talovic's attacks) and all that and broken hearts in the family and the other families.

"We're feeling more pain for the families of the other victims. It's harder than we ever thought it would be."

Speaking in broken English, Ajka Omerovic told the Deseret Morning News their family has been heartbroken and deeply feels the pain of the others.

"I just want to tell the other people, the victims' families, we are truly sorry for everything, for the pain and everything."

They too know pain, she said.

"I know how that is, and I can imagine how it is for them."

Omerovic said she thinks about Kirsten Hinckley, who was killed when she was 15 and who should have been 16 this year. That is a terrible feeling, she said. Then she started mentioning victim after victim, her words tumbling over each other.

"And I feel sorry for that boy who has the surgery ... and I feel sorry for the mother of the girl that Sulejman killed. I want to talk to her, and I want to tell her how much I feel the pain and everything, and my brother too, and all of us feel pain because of that."

Omerovic said her brother, Suljo Talovic, has not been the same since the shootings. He and the rest of the family are going back to Bosnia to stay because of the sadness and pain they feel here. They plan to leave "the end of this month."

With some of the family not able to speak English, it is so hard to tell people their story, "and to prove that we are innocent, you know."

When she took the girls to a clinic, people knew who they were, she said.

"They were laughing and talking behind their back."

An 8-year-old sister of Sulejman Talovic had to wait two hours for the work, she said. The girl cried at the clinic and when she got home. At home, "her mother cried, because she saw what's going on and everything," she said.

Asked about the girls' experiences at school, Omerovic said, "I think they say they were treated good at school."

The past year also has been "hard for me, too," she said.