SALT LAKE CITY -- Cousins of the teenage gunman who killed five people at a shopping mall said he showed weapons to them weeks before the shooting spree.
Sulejman Talovic, 18, who died in a shootout with police, made no mention of his plan for Trolley Square but said he was "hustling" guns and drugs for a gang, 18-year-old cousin Kemo Muskic told The Salt Lake Tribune.
While in his basement on Jan. 1, Talovic pulled out a 12-gauge shotgun, a .38-caliber revolver and ammunition, Muskic said.
"I was surprised," he said. But the cousins did not tell Talovic's parents what had happened.
Six weeks later, on Feb. 12, Talovic killed the five people and injured four others at the mall before police gunned him down. A motive still is unknown.
Talovic told three cousins that he planned to sell the weapons and a bag of marijuana, Muskic said.
Aldis Mustafic dismissed the claim as tough talk. "Nobody really believed him," he said.
Police have said Talovic legally purchased the shotgun from a dealer. Investigators still are tracking the revolver.
Talovic said he obtained it from a member of the Crips gang, according to Muskic.
Guns and drugs were an unfamiliar topic, and the display of toughness was unusual, the cousin said.
"He was talking like he was all that," Muskic said. "Like he was a gangsta."
Talovic and his family fled war-torn Bosnia for the United States in 1998, eventually settling in Utah. He was buried March 3 in Bosnia.
(Copyright 2007 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)
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