Salt Lake City – The parents of a teenager who killed five people in a shopping mall and died in a police shootout flew to their native Bosnia to bury him.
Suljo and Sabira Talovic left Utah shortly before midnight Wednesday and were expected to arrive in Bosnia today. The body of Sulejman Talovic, 18, was on a different flight and was also due in Bosnia today.
“It’s very, very, very difficult,” said his father, Suljo Talovic. “It’s broken my heart.”
Armed with a shotgun and a .38-caliber pistol, Sulejman Talovic killed five people and wounded four others Feb. 12 at Trolley Square. Police don’t know the motive, and Talovic’s parents said they don’t, either.
“I need to know what happened,” Suljo Talovic said. “I need information.”
Sulejman Talovic was 4 when he and his mother fled their village, Talovici, after Serb forces overran it in 1993, people close to the family have said.
They lived as refugees in Bosnia from 1993 to 1998 before moving to the U.S.
Also Thursday, police released recordings of emergency calls from the shootings, including an urgent alert from the wife of an off-duty officer who helped stop the gunman.
The first call came from a store employee inside the mall.
“We just heard gunshots outside. We should probably have an ambulance, too, I’m guessing,” she said. “Oh, my gosh. Oh, my gosh. There are, like, people, like, running.”
Salt Lake City police released more than three hours of recorded 911 calls.
