Sulejman Talovic (6 October 1988-12 February 2007) was a Bosnian-American man who committed the 2007 Trolley Square shooting in Salt Lake City, Utah, killing 5 people and wounding 4. Talovic was believed to be a radical Islamist, as he shouted "Allahu akbar" during the apparent terrorist attack.
Biography[]
Sulejman Talovic was born on 6 October 1988 in Cerska, Vlasenica, Yugoslavia (present-day Bosnia and Herzegovina) to a Sunni Muslim family of Bosniaks. In 1998, his family moved to the United States, and he received a green card in 2005, making him a permanent resident. He lived with his mother, father, and three sisters in Salt Lake City, Utah, and he frequently spent time at the Trolley Square mall, living one block away at one point. Talovic was a troubled youth, dropping out of high school at 16 after several minor juvenile incidents, and his aunt and father believed that somebody was behind his attack on Trolley Square in 2007. It is possible that Talovic was radicalized as an Islamist, and Talovic decided to carry out a terrorist attack at Trolley Square with a Mossberg Maverick shotgun and an S&W Model 36 .38-caliber revolver.
At 6:42 PM on 12 February 2007, Talovic parked his vehicle in the upper level of the Trolley Square parking garage and proceeded to shoot and kill a 52-year-old in the garage, wounding his 16-year-old son as well. He then proceeded to enter the mall and shoot in several stores, killing and wounding several people in the Cabin Fever store. He traded fire with police and entered the Pottery Barn store, holing up and shooting at the responding cops while shouting "Allahu akbar", a typical Islamist chant during terrorist attacks. Talovic was shot eight times in the back with pistols, and he was shot several more times when he turned around with his shotgun; he was shot a total of fifteen times. The shooting lasted six minutes, and 5 were killed while 4 were wounded. His family returned to Bosnia and Herzegovina after his death, with his aunt saying that the family was Muslim, but that they were not terrorists, and with his father saying that he was too ashamed to live in a country where his son had committed mass murder.