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)

"We're opening the mall, not in the sense of business as usual, but to let the healing begin," said Tom Bard, an executive at Scanlan Kemper Bard Cos. of Portland, Ore.

Twenty-five of the mall's 36 stores remained closed, along with one of its five restaurants, mall spokeswoman Alicia Bremer said. Plywood covered shattered windows.

Cabin Fever, a card shop where many of the shootings took place, was to stay closed until Feb. 21. "We really needed a little bit more time for ourselves and to show our condolences," co-owner David Dean said.

Outside the shop Wednesday there were free Valentine's Day cards and a sign that read: "Don't forget to tell someone you love them today." A worker was repairing pillars damaged by shotgun blast outside the shop and a Pottery Barn Kids store.

Outside the mall, candles and flowers were left as memorials to those killed, who were identified as Jeffrey Walker, 52, Vanessa Quinn, 29, Kirsten Hinckley, 15, Teresa Ellis, 29, and Brad Frantz, 24.

Four people who were wounded remained hospitalized Wednesday, two in critical condition, two in serious.

Talovic worked for two months as a general laborer at Aramark Uniform Services, an industrial launderer and uniform-rental company, manager Trent Thorn said. He appeared for his regular shift on the day of the shooting, he said.

Talovic's mother took him out of high school at age 16 to work, Salt Lake City school district spokesman Jason Olsen said.

Talovic and his family moved to the U.S. after living as refugees in Bosnia for five years, people close to the family still living in Bosnia told The Associated Press. Talovic was only 4 when he and his mother fled their village of Talovici on foot after Serbian forces overran it in 1993, they said.

"Many left the village, but only a few made it," said Murat Avdic, a friend of the family.

Up to 200,000 people were killed and 1.8 million others lost their homes in Bosnia's 1992-95 war.

Avdic said he was convinced the war in Talovic's homeland somehow contributed to the Utah rampage, especially the 1995 slaughter of 8,000 Muslim men and boys by Serb forces in the northeastern enclave of Srebrenica.

Bosnia's U.S. ambassador planned to visit Salt Lake City on Thursday. Bisera Turkovic was scheduled to have lunch with other Bosnians at the Bosna Restaurant and attend an evening memorial at the downtown library.

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Associated Press writers Debbie Hummel in Salt Lake City and Aida Cerkez-Robinson in Sarajevo contributed to this story.

(Corrects spelling of victim's name to Hinckley instead of Hinkley.)