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.
ABC too; their radio network news has been pronouncing the perp's name as "Solomon" instead of Suleiman on their hourly news updates on the radio.
I noticed that is was on the near back page of the news section under News in Brief. That and the other shooting.
Hey, you think John and Ken might roll with the story? I'll send it to them too.
And everyone is decrying racial profiling. Seems to me it's time to start opening the concentration camps.
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I will never again criticize someone who has a reflexive reaction to a tragic incident wondering if it is Muslims. Never again.
...but Islam is a religion of peace...
I haven't seen the spin... "Mormon kills Muslim immigrant" yet. I think it's just a matter of time.
Okay. Here is a question for everyone. The shooter at the Philly Navy Yard - what was his name? His religion? Also, any other news of the explosion at the Army base in Japan.
Here's the first two paragraphs of the Reuters story on the Philadelphia shooting:
An investor disgruntled over a bad deal called six colleagues to a boardroom meeting in the US before shooting dead execution-style three of them and eventually turning the gun on himself, police say.Vincent Dortch, 44, of Newark, Delaware, called the board meeting and tied four associates to chairs before shooting them, said Chief Inspector of Detectives Joseph Fox of the Philadelphia Police. One man survived.
Islamism is as incompatible with America as nazism and communism.
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Still, it should be pointed out that the killer acted like an Islamist.
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BTTT
Vincent Dortch...Dorcht...Dorcht. Ist Dorcht a Nazi name, Herr Dorcht? SHUT UP! I am asking you a qwestion! Now answer me, schwienhundt!
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