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Representatives of the Utah Consortium of Minority Groups on Tuesday extended their condolences to the victims of the Trolley Square shootings.
And they pleaded for more help for refugees.
"We're kindly asking families to search for a way to forgive," consortium leader Buba Roth said.
Other members of the consortium, an umbrella group of 26 associations of ethnic populations, expressed sorrow for what happened and encouraged Utahns not to turn against the Bosnian community based on the actions of one of its members.
Sulejman Talovic, the 18-year-old Salt Lake City man who killed five people and seriously injured four others, was a refugee from Bosnia who entered the United States in the late 1990s. Lori Haley, a spokeswoman for U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, said Talovic was a legal permanent resident.
Roth, a Serbian refugee from the former Yugoslavia, which was torn apart by war in the 1990s, said Bosnians are heartsick over what happened and not ready to speak publicly yet. A closed meeting of that community was scheduled for Tuesday night.
Antonella Packard, president of Honduras Maya de Utah, and Renetta Coppard, executive director of the Latin-American Chamber of Commerce, both asked for more assistance for refugees. They said better health care and other services would help prevent similar incidents and might have prevented past shootings.
Two 1999 shootings were committed by refugees, Roth said.
De-Kieu Duy, originally from Vietnam, shot and killed an AT&T employee and shot another person before being apprehended. Police said she had a history of mental illness.
Sergei Babarin, a Russian immigrant with a history of mental illness, killed two people at the LDS Church Family History Library and wounded four others before he was gunned down by police.
Packard said more inclusion of refugees in the community is needed.
"We came to Utah to be Americans," Roth said. "Instead, we're isolated and afraid."
"We're kindly asking families to search for a way to forgive."
BUBA ROTH
Leader, Utah Consortium of Minority Groups