Gunman Kills 2, Is Slain by Police in Mormon Library

A 70-year-old man police say was mentally ill opened fire inside the Mormon Church’s Family History Library here Thursday morning, killing two people and wounding four others. Minutes later, as a SWAT team stormed the building, police killed the man, who had barricaded himself in an office.

At least 200 people were inside the world’s largest geneological library--including two classes of fourth graders on a field trip--when the man police identified as Sergei Babarrin, of Salt Lake City walked through the first floor and opened fire with a .22 semiautomatic handgun.

The gunman killed a church security guard, who witnesses say was targeted first, and an unidentified woman in her 40s.

Mildred Starr of Modesto, Calif., said she entered the library as it opened at 7:30 and had just made a “breakthrough” tracking a lost relative when she heard shots. She hit the floor and hid behind the library’s stacks.

“I thought, ‘It can’t be shots, this is a library,’ ” she said. “Then all these people began to rush in and I heard people shouting, ‘Get down and stay down. I did.’ ”

Witnesses said pandemonium broke out as Babarrin opened fire around 10:30 a.m. Police said he was reported to have made rambling statements as he fired, but they know of no motive for the attack. Babarrin’s wife told police her husband was schizophrenic and had not been taking his medication. The daily ritual of the Russian emigre, she said, was to walk to the capitol and around Temple Square, the city’s ornate headquarters for the Church of Latter-Day Saints.

Salt Lake Police Chief Ruben Ortega said Babarrin “did a lot of shooting,” emptying at least one clip of ammunition and attempted to reload. Ortega said Babarrin had been arrested in 1995 after an altercation at a local store in which he brandished a .22-caliber handgun. Police were not sure if it was the same gun used in Thursday’s shootings.

At a late afternoon press conference, police said there had been reports of a man causing a problem Wednesday night at Temple Square, but were unsure if it was a related incident.

The three-story library is part of a sprawling complex of buildings across from Temple Square and the Tabernacle. It is a much-used resource for those wishing to research family history, containing 2 million rolls of microfilm, census books and information from more than 100 countries. This week the library was the epicenter for a convention of the Utah Geneological Society, as well as a host of other groups.

Dorothy DeMers was in a group from Modesto that had made its annual trek here to use the library.

DeMers said she had just entered the main hall when she heard what sounded like shots.

“I turned, and started to move, run,” she said from her downtown hotel room, still shaky. She said she saw a man come into the lobby and put on what she thought was a dark ski mask. “Then I just decided to scoot.”

DeMers said she ran down a hallway and into a classroom, where a meeting was in session. The instructor locked the door, DeMers said, and the 16 people in the room knelt quietly on the floor.

“Most everybody was praying,” DeMers said. “I know I was.”

They were later evacuated when police cleared the building.

Starr said the shooting sounded deliberate as the man fired methodically. At one point she heard the shooter run out of ammunition.

The library and its extensive collections are open to anyone, and it is often crowded with patrons. Many of them and staff are elderly. Many staffers are Mormons volunteering or as part of a church mission. Starr said she had been coming to do research for years and especially valued the building’s serenity.

“I’m terribly concerned about the people who work there,” she said, waiting to go back into the library to retrieve the material she left behind in her hasty exit. “They are wonderful and helpful. Many are old ladies like me. There is a certain gentleness to the place. I’m afraid that these people think that if they do the right thing, and help people, that everything will be all right in the world. They just don’t know what the world is like.”

It was the second rampage involving firearms and the mentally ill here this year. In January, one woman was killed and another wounded when a 24-year-old disturbed woman walked into a KSL-TV office downtown and began firing.

In another horrifying shootout last year in the nation’s capital, a man with a history of schizophrenia was charged with killing two Capitol police officers.

Police sealed off the entire downtown area even after Babarrin was fatally shot, fearing he had an accomplice. None was found, although authorities detained a man who got into an argument in the library. Police said the man, whom they did not identify, was intercepted after leaving the library. He was driving a Ryder rental truck that had been stopped Wednesday night by Idaho state troopers who questioned him about gasoline he was carrying.

Idaho authorities placed a sticker on the truck’s windhsield indicating it contained potentially explosive material. At first, Salt Lake police connected the driver of the truck to the shootings. As a precaution, a police bomb squad blew a hole in the side of the truck and inserted a remote viewing device. No explosives were found and the man was still being questioned late Thursday.

The evacuation of the downtown area--which included the main post office on tax deadline day--threw traffic into a tailspin. Office buildings were cleared and some employees sent to the Delta Center, a sports arena. Business was conducted on cell phone from the seats as hundreds of pizzas were brought in.

Official help came from surrounding communities and normally busy streets were filled with idling fire trucks, police cruisers and a medical helicopter. Anxious relatives were kept away from the scene and deluged city phone lines looking for loved one believed to be in the library.

Those injured were taken to area hospitals, including a 45-year-old woman listed in fair condition with a shoulder wound, an 80-year-old woman in fair condition with a face wound, a 71-year-old woman in serious condition with a head wound and an unidentified man in stable condition. A police officer was grazed by a bullet.

Said Mayor Deedee Corridini: “It has been a tragic day for our city. Unfortunately, these incidents happen in our citites and our country. We are saddened, our hearts go out the families and friends of the victims.”

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Shooting in Salt Lake City

A gunman opened fire at the Mormom Church’s Family History Library in Salt Lake City, killing two and wounding four others. The gunman was later shot and killed by police.

Source: AP research