Family in Bosnia Recalls Utah Gunman

Bosnian Muslim Redzo Talovic (59) distant relative of Sulejman Talovic, shows the ruins of pre war homes, owned by the Talovic family destroyed during Bosnian war, in the village of Talovici, 100 kms northeast of Bosnian capital of Sarajevo, on Thursday, Feb. 15, 2007. Sulejman Talovic fired randomly at shoppers at a mall in Salt Lake City, Utah, USA, on Monday, Feb. 12, killing five and leaving four others with bullet wounds before he was shot dead by police. Talovic left the village of Talovici in 1993 in a UN convoy and the houses were destroyed during the war.(AP Photo/Almir Arnaut) (Almir Arnaut - AP)

The family reunited in Tuzla later that year when a peace agreement brought an end to the war. But the accord divided the country, putting their native Talovici under Serb control _ and they did not dare return, relatives said.

They made their way to Zagreb, Croatia, where they obtained Croatian citizenship. In 1998, they joined relatives already living in Utah. They created new lives for themselves in Salt Lake City, relatives said.

"I spoke to his father on the phone almost every month since they left to the United States, and he said for the first time they have a decent life, they have a home, jobs and they were happy," said Redzo Talovic.

On Monday, 18-year-old Sulejman Talovic _ described by his Utah neighbors as a loner who always dressed in black _ opened fire at a shopping mall, killing five people and wounding four before being shot dead by police.

The news came as a shock to his extended family back in Talovici.

"When I heard his name on TV, I fainted. I still can't believe what he did," said a cousin, Mina Talovic, 54. "I remember him as a happy little boy sitting in my lap."

"Not in my wildest dreams could I have presumed Sulejman killed those people. When I heard his name, I fell from the sofa," Redzo Talovic said.

"What got into him? This is what we are all asking ourselves. We are all in shock," he said.

Avdic speculated the teen had been traumatized by what he saw and experienced as a child of war. Up to 200,000 people were killed in the 1992-95 war in Bosnia, and 1.8 million others lost their homes.

"I'm convinced the war did this," Avdic said of the rampage in Utah. "There cannot be any other reason."

Relatives described a clan scarred and scattered by a war that destroyed their lives and kept them far from home. Most of the homes in Talovici remain in ruins, including the house Sulejman Talovic's father built a year before the war broke out.

Most of the 30 original families living in Talovici fled _ going to Switzerland or the U.S., said Sefko Talovic.

"Nobody even thought of returning to Serb land," he said. "Only in 2000, a few of us visited Talovici for the first time. Everything was burned and destroyed."

In 2003, eight families returned to the village and fixed up their homes _ and Sulejman Talovic's family talked about doing the same, relatives said.

"We are all dismayed. We are having a hard time connecting that horrible act with the little smiling boy we remember," Redzo Talovic said.