Gunman's Son Speaks to KSL

Sergei Babarin was a 70-year-old native of Russia who spoke very little English and often became frustrated because he couldn't communicate well with others.

Babarin's son told Eyewitness News that his father was a toolmaker who moved to the states from Russia in 1981.

Police arrested him in 1995 and charged him with assault and carrying a concealed weapon, after a fight at the ZCMI Center in Salt Lake.

Salt Lake Police Chief Ruben Ortega says Babarin's wife indicated her husband stopped taking medication for schizophrenia, and would walk blocks each day to Temple Square and the State Capitol.

Officials at Valley Mental Health Center said Friday that they treated the gunman, but had not seen him since last August. They say they did not diagnose him as schizophrenic, but thought he had problems with depression and possibly dementia. They do not know if someone else diagnosed Babarin as schizophrenic, or if the family just used that term.

Diane L'Etoile is the manager of the senior citizens' building where Babarin lived with his wife in Salt Lake for the past nine years.

She says the building's 107 residents were "kind of shook up" over the incident.

Nobody there knew Babarin as schizophrenic, and L'Etoile says he had had several run-ins with neighbors over the years.

Babarin's son says his father was not a member of the L.D.S. Church. When asked why he would have targeted the Family History Library, the son said his father fancied himself somewhat of an inventor, and the Library was one place where he tried to sell his ideas.

His son also told Eyewitness News he tried to get his father committed, but ran into too much red tape.