Posted on 02/13/2007 4:34:26 PM PST by wagglebee
The 18-year-old gunman who killed five people in a crowded Utah shopping mall was a Bosnian Muslim refugee who was prepared to kill many more, say investigators.
An off-duty police officer having an early Valentine's Day dinner with his wife was credited today with cornering Sulejmen Talovic, exchanging fire with him until other officers arrived to shoot and kill the gunman.
The trench-coated teenager wanted to "to kill a large number of people" and probably would have killed many more if not for the off-duty officer, Police Chief Chris Burbank said.
A friend said Talovic was from the war-torn country of Bosnia and that the trauma he experienced while growing may have led to him snapping for some reason.
Ken Hammond, an off-duty officer from Ogden, north of Salt Lake City, jumped up from his seat at a restaurant after hearing gunfire and cornered the gunman, exchanging fire with him until other officers arrived, Burbank said.
"There is no question that his quick actions saved the lives of numerous other people," the police chief said.
Police said it was not immediately clear who fired the shot that killed Talovic.
Talovic had a backpack full of ammunition, a shotgun and a .38-caliber pistol, police said. Investigators knew little about Talovic, except than he lived in Salt Lake City with his mother, the chief said. He was enrolled in numerous city schools before withdrawing in 2004, the school district said. Initially, police refused to release his name or any information about his background.
Talovic drove to the Trolley Square shopping center – a century-old former trolley barn with winding hallways, brick floors and wrought-iron balconies, and immediately killed two people, followed by a third victim as he came through a door, Burbank said. Five other people were then shot in a gift shop, he said.
Four people who were wounded remained hospitalized today, two in critical condition, two in serious.
Outside the mall, candles and flowers were left as memorials to the victims.
Hammond's boss, Ogden Police Chief Jon Greiner, said the state Senate wants to honor him.
"Thank goodness he was there," said Greiner, who is also a state senator. "You don't want to ever say it's good we were there and killed somebody, but it's probably good someone was there."
Accountant Jeff Barlow was on a date at a restaurant when he looked outside and saw the gunman firing from the hip.
"I thought it was some kind of joke – some kind of movie or stunt," Barlow said. "I didn't believe it was happening. And then I saw a man go down in a courtyard. I realized this was serious. These are real bullets flying around."
David Dean, who owns a greeting-card store at the mall, said three or four people died inside his store, which was packed with Valentine's Day shoppers.
It seems to me this gunman story is quickly disappearing from the MSM radar. Has anyone else noticed how quickly it has become "old news"?
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Meanwhile there are far more important events to cover, how many fathers does Anna Nicole's baby have now?
Spin this, MSM:
The off duty police officer had a gun.
If he had not been there, there would have been many more deaths, thanks to the gun grabbers.
Church? Don't think so. He was a Bosnian Muslim.
As soon a I heard his name was Suleiman, I had my suspicions.
The question of who had sex with Smith is much more important than our own government importing Islamic radicals. </sarcasm>
When a Muslim kills 5 non Muslims I call it a Jihad, I call it terrorism. 4 more victims are critical. I call it terrorism
If he had gone to the Mosque and shot up his own kind I would not call it terrorism
6 minutes of horror: Shooter aimed to kill as many as he could
....mentions that Talovic's family is Muslim. Not much new otherwise that I can find this morning.
The media don't us to realize that there is active jihad going on right now in the USA.
You might be shocked to discover how much of our fair and balanced media is owned by followers of "The Religion Of Peace".
I guess I'm not surprised that there is no mention of him being a Muslim in the mainstream news.
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Yeah, we're all really shocked by that ommission.
On another thread about this yesterday, some FReepers were suggesting that the media were deliberately misspelling the guy's name to throw people off the mohammedan angle.
Is this the gratitude we get in return for the thousands of Bosniak (Muslim) lives we saved in the whole Balkan region?
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You don't get gratitude from the maniacs, just more bloodlust.
Bump
Sudden Jihad Syndrome
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Good one!
IMHO he WAS SANE as you or I, but yesterday CHOSE to KILL innocent people.
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I agree -- a sane person who chose to do evil. There are instances of that every day.
Ping Drudge a thousand times with this until it puts it up as his headline.
Tie it to some Hollywood freak or a weather event and you bet he'll do it!
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LOL! Tell him that this guy claimed to be the father of Anna Nicole's baby.
If the guy had been a devout Christian, that would be leading the news. I've noticed that the media seems to have pretty much "dropped" the whole shooting incident (I guess stories about Anna Nicole Smith are deemed more "newsworthy'), I wonder if there was any realization that it would be difficult to avoid the Muslim angle for much longer.
If the guy had been a devout Christian, that would be leading the news.
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Most definitely.
If I see any more video of that dead bimbo, I just may throw something at my TV. Why can't the media morons understand that we just don't care about the Anna Nicole story?
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