- Police say attack was pre-planned; suspect arrested
- Boy, 13, aims at security guard, then teacher, others
- Teacher and six students in the hospital
- The suspect had recently joined the class and was considered a good student
- The President says gun control should be tightened
BELGRADE, May 3 (Portal) – A boy gunned down fellow students at a Belgrade school in a pre-planned attack on Wednesday, killing eight and a security guard, officials said, prompting the Serbian president to announce tighter restrictions on gun ownership.
With two handguns that belonged to his father, the 13-year-old first shot the guard and three girls in a hallway and then shot his teacher and classmate in history class, police said. The teacher and six students were taken to hospital with non-life-threatening injuries.
Veselin Milic, chief of the Belgrade police, said the attacker had two firearms and two petrol bombs and planned everything carefully. “He even had … names of kids he wanted to kill and their classes,” he said at a news conference.
Gun ownership is rampant in Serbia, which has seen several mass shootings over the past decade, and President Aleksandar Vucic said controls would be tightened.
As Serbia prepared for a three-day state mourning, Vucic announced a moratorium on new gun licenses except for hunting, a revision of existing permits and supervision of shooting ranges and how civilians store their guns.
The shooter, who turned himself in to police and is still under criminal jurisdiction at 13, is being taken to a psychiatric facility, Vucic said at an evening news conference, adding that both his father and mother have been arrested. The boy will be 14 years old on July 30.
“He was the best student. He had asked for a transfer to another class where he had three friends,” Vucic said. “He’s been waiting for this day. He’s been to the shooting range three times with his father.”
Interior Minister Bratislav Gasic said the suspect’s father legally owned the guns. Hundreds of thousands of weapons are missing in Serbia after the Balkan wars of the 1990s.
Wednesday’s shooting happened at Vladislav Ribnikar, a primary school in Vracar, a central district of Belgrade.
Evgenija, 14, said she knew the suspected shooter.
“He was kind of quiet and seemed nice and got good grades. Didn’t know much about him, he wasn’t that open to everyone. I never expected that to happen,” she told Portal.
“I heard noises and I thought some boys, some kids were throwing firecrackers … But then I saw the security guard fall to the ground,” she said, adding that she then ran away.
“SHE ESCAPED”
The Home Office said eight children and a security guard were killed and six children were taken to hospital along with the teacher.
[1/7] People light candles near a school after a 13-year-old boy opened fire on other students and staff at the school in Belgrade, Serbia, May 3, 2023. Portal/Antonio Bronic
Sarah el Sarag, a local lawyer who will send her second child to school in September, described the dead guard as gentle and peaceful.
“He was a great guy… a man who loved the kids. I don’t know what was on the mind of that kid who shot him,” she told Portal.
Health Minister Danica Grujicic, a neurosurgeon who witnessed the aftermath of the Balkan wars, tearfully told reporters Wednesday’s events were “perhaps the most horrifying experience I’ve had as a doctor and as a person.”
Milan Milosevic said his daughter was in the classroom when the attacker burst in.
“She managed to escape. (The boy) … first shot the teacher and then he started shooting indiscriminately,” Milosevic, who rushed to the school, told N1.
“I saw the guard lying under the table. I saw two girls with blood on their shirts.”
Vracar Mayor Milan Nedeljkovic said doctors were fighting to save the teacher’s life.
GUN CULTURE
Gun laws are very strict in Serbia, but civilian gun ownership is also widespread.
According to the 2018 Small Arms Survey, Serbia ranks third in the world with 39.1 firearms per 100 people, and more than 78,000 people hold hunting licenses.
The survey estimate includes many guns held illegally since the wars and riots of the 1990s, although authorities have issued several amnesties for owners to turn in or register illegal guns.
In 2013, Ljubisa Bogdanovic killed 14 people in the deadliest shooting in Serbia since then. Further mass shootings took place in 2007, 2015 and 2016. All attackers were adults.
Luka 17, a student at the gymnasium alongside Vladislav Ribnikar, said Wednesday’s tragedy had been prepared for a long time.
“This is a mistake that the entire Serbian society has been making for over a decade… this popularization of violent crime by the public and the media, by the arts, by everything,” he said.
Reporting by Aleksandar Vasovic; Adaptation by John Stonestreet
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Aleksandar Wasović