Utah Mall Reopens After Deadly Shooting

Ogden city police master officer Ken Hammond addresses the media Tuesday, Feb. 13, 2007, in Ogden. Hammond, dressed in civilian clothes on his day off, confronted Sulejmen Talovic and returned fire as Talovic allegedly opened fired Monday night, killing 5 people, at a local shopping mall. Talovic was killed by the police. Hammond's wife, Sarita, looks on. The two had dinner at a restaurant at the mall as a pre-Valentines Day date. (AP Photo/Douglas C. Pizac) (Douglas C. Pizac - AP)

SALT LAKE CITY -- A shopping mall where five people were gunned down this week reopened Wednesday, as authorities tried to figure out why a teenage Bosnian immigrant committed the rampage and how he got his hands on a gun.

FBI agent Patrick Kiernan in Salt Lake City said the bureau had no reason to believe Sulejman Talovic, who was killed by police, was motivated by religious extremism or an act of terrorism.

"It's just unexplainable," Kiernan said Wednesday. "He was just walking around and shooting everybody he saw."

Armed with a .38-caliber pistol, a shotgun and a backpack full of ammunition, Talovic shot nine people, five fatally, at the Trolley Square shopping center Monday before he was stopped by police, including an off-duty officer from Ogden.

"We are Muslims, but we are not terrorists," the boy's aunt, Ajka Omerovic, said Wednesday at the family's house.

She rejected any religious motive and said the family can't explain the shooting. The Talovic family fled Bosnia for Utah in 1998 "to be free," she said.

Talovic lived with his parents and three younger sisters in a tiny ranch house. His parents, Suljo and Sabira Tolavic, do not speak English well and have refused to answer the door.

Neighbors described the lanky boy as a loner who dressed in black.

The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives is investigating how the 18-year-old got the pistol.

"You can buy long guns at 18. That's not a problem. The handgun he shouldn't have had, so obviously we're going to look at where he got that gun," said Lori Dyer, in charge of the local ATF office.

Omerovic said Talovic never displayed any guns. "We want to know who sold these guns to him," she said.

Less than 48 hours after the shootings, police tape was removed from the parking lot as the mall reopened, although it was up to each shop owner whether to resume business.