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Amanda Butterfield ReportingSalt Lake Police are trying to put to rest two rumors about the Trolley Square Shooting. One rumor was spread by a U.S. Congressman.
Robin Snyder, Salt Lake Police Department: "We try to prevent that, but sometimes it's hard."
The Salt Lake Police Department always expects rumors when something big like last week's shooting happens. We heard a big one. It was even spread by Congressman Chris Cannon on the Doug Wright show this morning.
Congressman Chris Cannon: "We go from a kid shouting Allah Akbar as he shoots people in Trolley Square."
Was 18-year-old Suljmen Talovic yelling, "Allah Akbar, God is Great," while shooting people? KSL found out: no.
Robin Snyder/SLCPD: "We have no indication he was yelling anything of that nature at all."
Cannon's spokesperson said he heard it on Fox cable news. It could have started with a video from inside Trolley Square. You hear yelling, but if you listen closely, it's the off-duty police officer, Kenneth Hammond, yelling "Ogden Police Department," or OPD.
Cannon's people admitted to us that Talovic's motives may never be known but said, "The Congressman readily acknowledges that the true motivation for this tragic act may never be known, but the mere possibility, raised in reports airing on Fox News and other outlets, that there could be an ideological motive speaks to [the] point he made on the Doug Wright show: That terror and fear know no boundaries and must be confronted wherever they threaten us."
Another rumor: KSL received an e-mail that the week before the shooting, Talovic went to an LDS devotional at the Conference Center. He was alone, wearing a back-pack, acting suspicious. We discovered the church does have surveillance video of a man fitting that description. We also discovered it is not Talovic.
Robin Snyder, SLCPD: "Detectives looked at the tape, and they don't think it's him."
Though police say they expect some misinformation to get out, it's still frustrating.
Robin Snyder, SLCPD: "We want people to know all the accurate information all the time, and sometime it's hard to control that."
Snyder adds the victims are the ones hurt most by speculation and rumor, at a time when they're trying to sort through their grief.
