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Team Coverage One year ago today an unforgettable moment in Salt Lake City history: the Trolley Square shootings. Six people, including the shooter, were killed, and four others were wounded. A year later, some are still struggling to heal.
Trolley Square Mall made today's memorial possible. This morning, Trolley survivors gathered here to have a moment of silence.
Carolyn Tuft placed a picture of her daughter, Kirsten Hinckley, near a white burning candle on a table covered in black. She says, "It's surreal. It doesn't feel real. It breaks my heart, obviously, but it's not real." Hinckley was shot to death inside the Cabin Fever store, Tuft was wounded.
Also wounded was Stacy Hanson. The shooting put him in a wheelchair. He had his reservations coming today but still felt it was necessary. He said, "This is kind of the closure for it, moving on to bigger, better things … For me, it's a nice day because we're celebrating life."
Doctors said Hanson would never walk again, but we're happy to report he's made real progress. He showed us movement in his legs and has taken a few steps in physical therapy.
The silent memorial was in place at Trolley Square's South Amphitheater until 9 p.m. A memorial wreath is set up and there is a place for people to leave notes for victims and their families.
Others chose to remember this one year anniversary at St. Mark's Episcopal Church. During the intimate service each victim's name was read.
Brad Frantz was only 24 years old when he died. His aunt, Dorene Frantz, was in the pews. "It's hard for people to move on just because of the brutality that had happened," she said.
Brutality at the hands of 18-year-old Sulejman Talovic, a Bosnian refugee who took two guns into the Trolley Square Mall and started shooting people randomly. He killed five people and wounded four before police shot and killed him. One year later, investigators still don't know why he did it.
Among all the names read at St. Mark's, Talovic was also mentioned. "Part of the message is forgiveness," said Tom Clark, who attended the service.
But who could ever forget? The Trolley shootings changed Tracy Doyle's life. "In more ways than I could ever imagine," she said.
Doyle was one of the many law enforcement officers evacuating people from the mall. Today that experience still haunts her. "I just, I really can't talk about it anymore," she said.
Carolyn Tuft continues to be affected by the shooting, too. Not only did she lose her daughter, Kirsten Hinckley, but she has also struggled with the aftermath of her own gunshot wounds.
Tuft says what happened at Trolley Square is still very fresh in her mind, though it feels like forever since she's seen her daughter. She told us Kirsten is always in her thoughts, and she doesn't need an anniversary to remember her.
As Carolyn Tuft looks at pictures of her daughter, she remembers Kirsten's joy. "I would never have thought my little girl wasn't going to be here this year. And it breaks my heart, but I can't do anything about it."
One year after Kirsten's death, Carolyn is surrounded by loved ones, including Kirsten's friends, who listen to her favorite music and honor her with activities she would have loved, like chocolate food fights!
Kirsten's sister, Kaitlin Hinckley, says, "It's really, really helpful to have them here and have somebody to talk to that knows her, that knows all her little quirks."
Carolyn says she couldn't have made it without the support. While grieving Kirsten's death, she was also dealing with health problems. After the shooting, doctors couldn't remove hundreds of lead pellets in her body, leaving her with lead poisoning she treats with hard-to-take medicine.
"Every morning I wake up so nauseous and in so much pain," Tuft said.
Because of damaged nerves in her hand, she has not been able to work. But community donations astound her. "I never know from month to month if my rent's going to be paid. And it seems like I'm always OK."
This Fall, she wanted to make sure her family was okay, so she took them to Italy where Kirsten had always dreamed of going. She said, "We went for her, and we went for us. We needed to solidify us as a family."
Before meeting up with her sons, Caroline biked across Tuscany with her Kaitlin. "I needed to show her that life is still good and there's a big, beautiful world out there, ‘cause she was struggling without her sister," Tuft said.
Kaitlin said, "I was thinking about her the whole time. It made me sad that she wasn't there, but there were times when we could kind of feel her there with us."
Carolyn says their trip was a metaphor for life: when you're on a bike you have to focus on the road ahead of you. That's what she plans to do; she's even hopeful she will be able to start working again in the near future.
