Teen Gunman in trenchcoast kills 5 in Utah Mall with shotgun

[Bling]

i am getting so sick of this lets copy Columbine crap...

teens are out of control these days.. wtf... sickos

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SALT LAKE CITY, Utah (AP) -- A historic mall's winding hallways became a shooting gallery for an 18-year-old gunman in a trench coat who fired a shotgun randomly at customers, killing five and wounding four before being killed by police, authorities and witnesses said.

The shooter, whose name was not released, also was armed with a handgun and had several rounds of ammunition, Salt Lake City police Detective Robin Snyder said early Tuesday. No motive has yet been determined, she said.

For hours after Monday evening's rampage at the Trolley Square shopping mall, police searched stores for scared, shocked shoppers and employees who were hunkered down awaiting a safe escort. (Watch witnesses recount gunshots, carnage )

Marie Smith, 23, a Bath & Body Works manager, saw the gunman through the store window. She watched as he raised his gun and fired at a young woman approaching him from behind.

"His expression stayed totally calm. He didn't seem upset, or like he was on a rampage," said Smith, who crawled to safety in an employee restroom to hide with others. She said the gunman looked like "an average Joe."

Killed were two 28-year-old women, a 52-year-old man, a 24-year-old man and a 15-year-old girl, Snyder said. Four people were hospitalized -- a man and a woman in critical condition and two men in serious condition, Snyder said.

'A barrage of gunfire'
Matt Lund was visiting his wife, Barbara, manager of the Secret Garden children's clothing store, when he heard the first shots. The couple and three others hid in a storage room for about 40 minutes, isolated but still able to hear the violence.

"We heard them say, 'Police! Drop your weapon!' Then we heard shotgun fire. Then there was a barrage of gunfire," said Lund, 44. "It was hard to believe."

They say officers treated everyone like suspects -- ordering those hiding in storerooms, bathrooms or under stairwells, to lie on the floor with their hands on their heads until police were sure no one posed a threat.

On the way out, Lund said, he saw a woman's body facedown at the entrance to Pottery Barn Kids and a man's body on the floor in the mall's east-west corridor. "There were a lot of blown-out store windows and shotgun shell casings all over the floor," Lund said. "It was quite surreal."

The victims were found throughout the 239,000-square-foot shopping mall.

Outside, streets were blocked as police swarmed the four-block scene. Dozens of people lingered on the sidewalk, many wrapped in blankets, as they talked about what they had seen inside.

Four police in shootout with gunman
The two-story mall, southeast of downtown, is a refurbished trolley barn built in 1908, with a series of winding hallways, brick floors, wrought-iron balconies and about 80 stores, including high-end retailers such as Williams-Sonoma and restaurants such as the Hard Rock Cafe.

Antique store owner Barrett Dodds, 29, said he saw a man in a trench coat exchanging gunfire with a police officer outside a card store. The gunman, he said, was backed into a children's clothing store.

"I saw the shooter go down," said Dodds, who watched from the second floor.

Four police officers -- one an off-duty officer from Ogden and three Salt Lake City officers -- were involved in the shootout with the gunman, Snyder said. She provided no other details.

Barb McKeown, 60, of Washington was in another antique shop when two frantic women ran in and reported gunshots.

"Then we heard shot after shot after shot -- loud, loud, loud," said McKeown, saying she heard about 20. She and three other people hid under a staircase until it was safe to leave.

Copyright 2007 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.


http://www.cnn.com/2007/US/02/13/sal....ap/index.html

[DaGoose]

Dose dem trench coat mafia boyz.

[clubchicky]

doesn't surprise me!

[JMT]

Police identify gunman as 18-year-old Bosnian

Deseret Morning News

Police Tuesday identified the gunman accused in Monday night's Trolley Square shooting as Sulejman Talovic, an 18-year-old Bosnian refugee who lived in Salt Lake City.

Salt Lake City Police Chief Chris Burbank said Talovic drove his car to the mall, parked in the west parking terrace and encountered two people who he shot before entering the mall.

There, he encountered a female who also was shot right away, then went into a gift shop where there were five people, all of whom the young man shot. Moving through the mall, the gunman tried to shoot others, Burbank said. The chief said he could not say now how many shots were involved in the entire episode.

Burbank praised an unnamed Ogden police officer who took action at the mall to intervene in the incident, and praised the many law enforcement and other agencies that responded quickly and professionally to the crisis.

Until Salt Lake police arrived, it was "basically a shoot-out between the Ogden individual and this individual," Burbank said.

"As you can see, this individual was well-prepared," Burbank said, apparently referring to the young man's backpack filled with ammunition "He had one purpose."

Six individuals died and four others were hospitalized. Currently, four Salt Lake City police officers are on administrative leave, as is the Ogden police officer.

"This is something in our community that is really unheard of," Burbank said.

At a news conference Salt Lake City Mayor Rocky Anderson extended his sympathies to families of victims of Monday's shooting at Trolley Square and reassured the community that, "This is a safe place."

"We want to do everything we can to help," Anderson said. "At times like this, there is an enormous sense of helplessness. There is help available."

Anderson said counseling is available at Valley Mental Health and people can call its crisis line at 261-1442.

The mayor said managers at Trolley Square were meeting with employees to provide any needed counseling, the city was offering help to police and firefighters, and Anderson especially singled out the "particular effect felt by children" after going through or viewing such a frightening episode.

"We urge everyone with children — let them know they can talk about this openly, they don't have to hide their feelings."

Anderson said it is important for adults to do what they can to provide assurances to children that this was an isolated and very rare incident. "Notwithstanding what happened last night, this is a safe place," the mayor said.

Anderson said the city is experiencing the lowest serious crime rate in 14 years.

A memorial fund for victims has been established at Wells Fargo Bank.



http://deseretnews.com/dn/view/0,1249,660195221,00.html

[JMT]

home video taken by bystander in mall released:

http://kutv.com/video/?id=23467@kutv.dayport.com




http://www.deseretnews.com/dn/view/0...195489,00.html

[slamminshaun]

Originally Posted by JMT

Police identify gunman as 18-year-old Bosnian

If I wrote the story, I would've identified him as a Muslim instead.

[JMT]

Originally Posted by Slammin'

[quote author=JMT link=board=6;threadid=36955;start=0#msg417826 date=1171477326]
Police identify gunman as 18-year-old Bosnian

If I wrote the story, I would've identified him as a Muslim instead.
[/quote]

that info was tucked into the section of the article where they talk about what a good boy he was.

[029]

Originally Posted by Slammin'

[quote author=JMT link=board=6;threadid=36955;start=0#msg417826 date=1171477326]
Police identify gunman as 18-year-old Bosnian

If I wrote the story, I would've identified him as a Muslim instead.
[/quote]

i don't get it. what diff does his religion make??

[saintjohn]

Religion may have nothing to do with it, but it's curious that Sulejman Talovic had been attending the same mosque as Sgt. Hasan Akbar, the U. S. Army soldier who attacked his own commanding officers in Kuwait in 2003. It's also curious that the media seems eager to avoid any possible jihad connection.

[saintjohn]

Mainstream news agencies have always been reluctant to consider the obvious whenever a Muslim goes on a killing spree.

Ten years ago, a Palestinian English teacher named Ali Abu Kamal went to the 86th floor observation deck of the Empire State Building, pulled out a pistol, and opened fire. He killed one person and wounded six others before killing himself. Even though letters ranting about the U. S. and Israel were found on the killer's body, the media quickly embraced the story that Karnal was despondent and suicidal due to some bad business deals.

This week, the killer’s daughter (who now works for the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestinian Refugees) admitted that this story was a complete fraud. She wants the world to know that her father was “martyred for patriotic motivations,” even though the family had been directly instructed to lie about it by the Palestinian Authority.