Trolley Square shooting
Encyclopedia
The Trolley Square shooting was a shooting spree
that occurred on the evening of February 12, 2007, at Trolley Square Mall in Salt Lake City, Utah
, United States
. A lone gunman killed five bystanders and wounded four others before being shot dead by police
.
. He carried both a shotgun with a pistol grip and a 38-caliber
handgun, as well as a backpack full of ammunition.
The gunman's rampage was stopped after trading shots with off-duty police officer Kenneth Hammond of the Ogden City Police Department and Sgt. Andrew Oblad of the Salt Lake City Police Department . The final confrontation, in which Talović was killed, occurred in the Pottery Barn Kids home furnishing store. Hammond was at Trolley Square having an early Valentine's Day dinner with his pregnant wife, 911 dispatcher
Sarita Hammond, when they heard gunshots. Sarita Hammond, borrowed a waiter's cell phone to call 911. Talović was cornered and was shooting at officers, until an active shooter contact team composed of Salt Lake City PD SWAT team members arrived and shot him. Salt Lake City police officials on February 13, 2007, thanked Hammond as a hero for saving countless lives.
According to local TV station KTVX, several witnesses reported that a majority of the shooting took place on the ground floor near the Pottery Barn
store, though the majority of the dead were found in Cabin Fever, a card store. One of the victims, having been shot, apparently entered the nearby Hard Rock Cafe
and told customers to lock the doors. Several victims were transported to local hospitals, some in critical condition.
One of the victims was a 16-year-old boy, A.J. Walker, found in his car with a wound to the side of his head; another, Cedric Wilson, an employee at Rodizio Grill, was fired at twice but suffered only a graze on his head.
Deceased
Injured
The perpetrator in the shootings was Sulejman Talović, 18 (October 6, 1988 - February 12, 2007), who was born in Cerska
, a town in the Vlasenica municipality
of Bosnia and Herzegovina
, and later migrated with his family to the United States
in 1998. Talović was a permanent resident
who received a green card
in 2005 and lived with his mother, father and 3 sisters in Salt Lake City at the time of the shooting. As a child, Talovic frequently spent time at the mall and was described as "the only place he went." The family at one point lived one block away. He had a record of minor juvenile incidents and had dropped out
of high school
at age 16.
After the shooting, Talović was buried in his birthplace, the small village of Talovići near Cerska
, Bosnia and Herzegovina on March 2, 2007.
.
In another KSL interview, with Omerović, and Talović's father, Suljo Talović, the two indicated concern that some outside influence might have induced Sulejman to commit the killings. "I think this [Sulejman] did. I think somebody (is) behind him, I think, but I am not sure...."
The father suggested that the US government bears some responsibility for his son's actions, saying "The authorities are guilty for not alerting us that he bought a gun. In the US, you cannot buy cigarettes if you are underaged, but you can buy a gun." However, contrary to Mr. Talović's statement, federal law prohibits the sale of handguns and handgun ammunition to those under 21; shotguns and shotgun ammunition are prohibited to those under 18.
In the light of the War on Terrorism
some commentators, including John Gibson
and congressman Chris Cannon
suggested that Talović repeatedly shouted "Allahu Akbar
" prior to his death, suggesting a religious motive, citing video of the rampage which supposedly captures Talović's religious shouting. FBI agent Patrick Kiernan has stated that he has no reason to suspect terrorism. Ajka Omerović was quoted as saying, "We are Muslims, but we are not terrorists."
They are: Sgt. Andrew Oblad, Sgt. Joshua Scharman, Detective Dustin Marshall and Detective Brett Olsen, all of the Salt Lake City Police Department
, and Officer Kenneth Hammond. However, soon after the shooting, Hammond was accused by at least two women of sexual harassment while on duty; the first woman was underage at the time of the alleged assault, while the second woman filed a lawsuit, which was settled by the city. Hammond later resigned from the department. In a plea agreement, Hammond pled no contest to the charges and was sentenced to 90 days in jail.
Mass murder
Mass murder is the act of murdering a large number of people , typically at the same time or over a relatively short period of time. According to the FBI, mass murder is defined as four or more murders occurring during a particular event with no cooling-off period between the murders...
that occurred on the evening of February 12, 2007, at Trolley Square Mall in Salt Lake City, Utah
Utah
Utah is a state in the Western United States. It was the 45th state to join the Union, on January 4, 1896. Approximately 80% of Utah's 2,763,885 people live along the Wasatch Front, centering on Salt Lake City. This leaves vast expanses of the state nearly uninhabited, making the population the...
, United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
. A lone gunman killed five bystanders and wounded four others before being shot dead by police
Police
The police is a personification of the state designated to put in practice the enforced law, protect property and reduce civil disorder in civilian matters. Their powers include the legitimized use of force...
.
The shooting
On February 12, 2007, at 6:44 PM MST, Sulejman Talović began a deadly shooting spree in Trolley Square resulting in the deaths of five bystanders and the shooter himself, as well as the wounding of at least four others. Talović was described as wearing a white shirt, a tan trenchcoat and a mulletMullet (haircut)
The mullet is a hairstyle that is short at the front and sides, and long in the back. . The mullet began to appear in popular media in the 1960s and 1970s but did not become generally well-known until the early 1980s...
. He carried both a shotgun with a pistol grip and a 38-caliber
.38 Special
The .38 Smith & Wesson Special is a rimmed, centerfire cartridge designed by Smith & Wesson. It is most commonly used in revolvers, although some semi-automatic pistols and carbines also use this round...
handgun, as well as a backpack full of ammunition.
The gunman's rampage was stopped after trading shots with off-duty police officer Kenneth Hammond of the Ogden City Police Department and Sgt. Andrew Oblad of the Salt Lake City Police Department . The final confrontation, in which Talović was killed, occurred in the Pottery Barn Kids home furnishing store. Hammond was at Trolley Square having an early Valentine's Day dinner with his pregnant wife, 911 dispatcher
Dispatcher
Dispatchers are communications personnel responsible for receiving and transmitting pure and reliable messages, tracking vehicles and equipment, and recording other important information...
Sarita Hammond, when they heard gunshots. Sarita Hammond, borrowed a waiter's cell phone to call 911. Talović was cornered and was shooting at officers, until an active shooter contact team composed of Salt Lake City PD SWAT team members arrived and shot him. Salt Lake City police officials on February 13, 2007, thanked Hammond as a hero for saving countless lives.
According to local TV station KTVX, several witnesses reported that a majority of the shooting took place on the ground floor near the Pottery Barn
Pottery Barn
Pottery Barn is an American-based home furnishing store chain with retail stores in the United States, Canada and Puerto Rico. Since September 1986, when it was purchased from GAP, Inc, Pottery Barn is a wholly owned subsidiary of Williams-Sonoma, Inc....
store, though the majority of the dead were found in Cabin Fever, a card store. One of the victims, having been shot, apparently entered the nearby Hard Rock Cafe
Hard Rock Cafe
Hard Rock Cafe is a chain of theme restaurants founded in 1971 by Americans Peter Morton & Isaac Tigrett. In 1979, the cafe began covering its walls with rock and roll memorabilia, a tradition which expanded to others in the chain. In 2006, Hard Rock was sold to the Seminole Tribe of Florida, and...
and told customers to lock the doors. Several victims were transported to local hospitals, some in critical condition.
One of the victims was a 16-year-old boy, A.J. Walker, found in his car with a wound to the side of his head; another, Cedric Wilson, an employee at Rodizio Grill, was fired at twice but suffered only a graze on his head.
Deceased
- Teresa Ellis, 29
- Brad Frantz, 24
- Kirsten Hinckley, 15
- Vanessa Quinn, 29
- Jeffrey Walker, 53
- Suleman Talović, 18 (Shooter)
Injured
- Carolyn Tuft, 43 (mother of Kirsten Hinckley)
- Shawn Munns, 34
- Stacy Hanson, 53
- Alan "A.J." Walker, 16 (son of Jeffrey Walker)
The shooter
Cerska
Cerska is a small town in the municipality of Vlasenica, Bosnia and Herzegovina located 12 kilometers from the town of Vlasenica itself and 11 km from the Serbian border....
, a town in the Vlasenica municipality
Vlasenica
Vlasenica is a municipality and town of Bosnia and Herzegovina. Administratively it is part of Vlasenica Region.-1912:...
of Bosnia and Herzegovina
Bosnia and Herzegovina
Bosnia and Herzegovina , sometimes called Bosnia-Herzegovina or simply Bosnia, is a country in Southern Europe, on the Balkan Peninsula. Bordered by Croatia to the north, west and south, Serbia to the east, and Montenegro to the southeast, Bosnia and Herzegovina is almost landlocked, except for the...
, and later migrated with his family to the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
in 1998. Talović was a permanent resident
Permanent residency
Permanent residency refers to a person's visa status: the person is allowed to reside indefinitely within a country of which he or she is not a citizen. A person with such status is known as a permanent resident....
who received a green card
United States Permanent Resident Card
United States lawful permanent residency refers to a person's immigration status: the person is authorized to live and work in the United States of America on a permanent basis....
in 2005 and lived with his mother, father and 3 sisters in Salt Lake City at the time of the shooting. As a child, Talovic frequently spent time at the mall and was described as "the only place he went." The family at one point lived one block away. He had a record of minor juvenile incidents and had dropped out
Dropping out
Dropping out means leaving a group for either practical reasons, necessities or disillusionment with the system from which the individual in question leaves....
of high school
High school
High school is a term used in parts of the English speaking world to describe institutions which provide all or part of secondary education. The term is often incorporated into the name of such institutions....
at age 16.
After the shooting, Talović was buried in his birthplace, the small village of Talovići near Cerska
Cerska
Cerska is a small town in the municipality of Vlasenica, Bosnia and Herzegovina located 12 kilometers from the town of Vlasenica itself and 11 km from the Serbian border....
, Bosnia and Herzegovina on March 2, 2007.
Motive
Talović's aunt, Ajka Omerović, emerged briefly from the family's house to say relatives had no idea why the young man attacked so many strangers. She said that Talović had lived in the Sarajevo area as a child, and that his family moved to Utah from Bosnia. "He was such a good boy. I don't know what happened," she told Salt Lake City television station KSL-TVKSL-TV
KSL-TV, virtual channel 5, is an NBC-affiliated television station located in Salt Lake City, Utah, USA. KSL-TV is owned by Bonneville International Corporation, which is in turn owned by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints...
.
In another KSL interview, with Omerović, and Talović's father, Suljo Talović, the two indicated concern that some outside influence might have induced Sulejman to commit the killings. "I think this [Sulejman] did. I think somebody (is) behind him, I think, but I am not sure...."
The father suggested that the US government bears some responsibility for his son's actions, saying "The authorities are guilty for not alerting us that he bought a gun. In the US, you cannot buy cigarettes if you are underaged, but you can buy a gun." However, contrary to Mr. Talović's statement, federal law prohibits the sale of handguns and handgun ammunition to those under 21; shotguns and shotgun ammunition are prohibited to those under 18.
In the light of the War on Terrorism
War on Terrorism
The War on Terror is a term commonly applied to an international military campaign led by the United States and the United Kingdom with the support of other North Atlantic Treaty Organisation as well as non-NATO countries...
some commentators, including John Gibson
John Gibson (media host)
John David Gibson is an American radio talk show host. As of September 2008, he hosts the syndicated radio program The John Gibson Show on Fox News Radio. Gibson was formerly the co-host of the weekday edition of The Big Story on the Fox News television channel.-Early career:Gibson earned a BA...
and congressman Chris Cannon
Chris Cannon
Christopher Black "Chris" Cannon was a member of the United States House of Representatives, for the Republican Party, representing the third district of Utah from 1997 - 2009....
suggested that Talović repeatedly shouted "Allahu Akbar
Takbir
The Takbīr or Tekbir is the Arabic term for the phrase ' . It is usually translated "God is [the] Greatest," or "God is Great". It is a common Islamic Arabic expression...
" prior to his death, suggesting a religious motive, citing video of the rampage which supposedly captures Talović's religious shouting. FBI agent Patrick Kiernan has stated that he has no reason to suspect terrorism. Ajka Omerović was quoted as saying, "We are Muslims, but we are not terrorists."
Officers honored
Five officers were honored at the Utah state capitol on February 16 for their bravery in the Trolley Square shooting.They are: Sgt. Andrew Oblad, Sgt. Joshua Scharman, Detective Dustin Marshall and Detective Brett Olsen, all of the Salt Lake City Police Department
Salt Lake City Police Department
The Salt Lake City Police department is headquartered in downtown Salt Lake City. Utah, at the intersection of the streets 315 East and 200 South. The department was founded in 1849.-Administration:...
, and Officer Kenneth Hammond. However, soon after the shooting, Hammond was accused by at least two women of sexual harassment while on duty; the first woman was underage at the time of the alleged assault, while the second woman filed a lawsuit, which was settled by the city. Hammond later resigned from the department. In a plea agreement, Hammond pled no contest to the charges and was sentenced to 90 days in jail.
See also
- Ward Parkway Shopping Center shooting
- Hudson Valley Mall shooting
- Tacoma Mall shootingTacoma Mall shootingThe Tacoma Mall shooting was a spree shooting that occurred on November 20, 2005 at the Tacoma Mall in Tacoma, Washington, United States. The gunman, Dominick Maldonado, entered the mall with a semi-automatic Norinco MAK-90 rifle and a pistol, injuring six before he instigated four armed...
- Westroads Mall shootingWestroads Mall shootingThe Westroads Mall shooting was a murder-suicide that occurred on Wednesday, December 5, 2007, at the Von Maur department store in the Westroads Mall in Omaha, Nebraska, United States. Nineteen-year-old Robert A. Hawkins killed nine people and wounded four, two of them critically...
- Sello mall shootingSello mall shootingThe Sello mall shooting occurred on the morning of 31 December 2009 shortly after 10:08 local time at the Sello Prisma hypermarket in Leppävaara district of Espoo, Finland. The shooting was believed to have been started after Ibrahim Shkupolli, the alleged gunman, found that his ex-girlfriend had a...
External links
- Official statement by owners concerning shooting spree
- Message from the governor of Utah concerning shooting
- Audio of Trolley Square 911 calls and police band radio audio from KNRS Radio
- CBS News coverage of shooting and message-board
- KSTU-Fox coverage of shooting spree
- KTVX-ABC coverage of shooting spree
- KSL-NBC message-boards and coverage of shooting spree
- KUTV-CBS coverage of shooting spree
- Video by bystander in shooting of police inside Trolley Square
- Was banning weapons at Trolley wise?
- Picture of Trolley Square rules, including prohibition on weapons
