At least two minors are among the victims of an armed and drunk man who opened fire in a town in the south of the country. Surrounded by police, the shooter killed himself by shooting himself in the head.
At least ten people, including two minors, were killed by an armed and drunk man on Wednesday in a restaurant in a village in southern Montenegro, including the owner of the establishment where the suspect had spent the day drinking and members of his family.
Contrary to initial information provided by the police, not all the victims were shot in this restaurant near the town of Cetinje. The suspect, who committed suicide a few hours after the tragedy, allegedly struck in different places.
The drama began around 4:30 p.m. GMT, when the suspect, born in 1979, “after arguing with a customer with whom he had spent much of the day, and having drunk large quantities of alcohol, returned home, took a gun, and killed four people »indicated the police chief. He then went “in three other places where he killed the Martinovic family, a member of his own family and two children aged 10 and 13. He tried to kill four other people whose lives are no longer in danger.said Lazar Scepanovic during a press briefing.
After several hours of tracking by the police and the army, the shooter, aged 45, was located and surrounded. When officers asked him “to put down his gun, he shot himself in the head,” Mr. Scepanovic said. “We tried to transport him to a hospital, but he succumbed to his injuries,” he said.
In a speech in the evening, Prime Minister Milojko Spajic announced a three-day national mourning, on January 2, 3 and 4. “We are looking for the culprit and we are on the right path”he stressed. Evoking “a fight in a restaurant, during which weapons were drawn, and which degenerated”Mr. Spajic also announced new restrictions to come on the possession of firearms.
The hypothesis of a “non-mafia” crime
On site, near the traditional restaurant in which the tragedy took place, the police prevented anyone from approaching in the evening. Dozens of men, police vehicles and at least one ambulance were visible behind the barriers, noted an AFP journalist.
-Assuring in his press release that this shooting was not “not the result of a confrontation between groups belonging to organized crime”Montenegrin police urged residents to stay at home while the suspect was on the run.
Although the police seem to favor the hypothesis of a non-mafia crime, organized crime and corruption have long affected Montenegro, and the town of Cetinje has been particularly affected in recent months.
In June, two people died and three were injured there in an explosion – members of a criminal group, according to police. Among the injured were two other suspected gang members, as well as a female bystander.
After this explosion, the government promised to attack organized crime. But at the end of September, another member of a mafia clan was killed, again in Cetinje, the former royal capital nestled in the hollow of a valley. He was shot and killed by sniper fire while sitting in his backyard. These settling of scores are all linked, investigators suspect, to the conflict which has opposed two criminal groups for years, the “skaljari” and the “kavaci”.
The small Balkan country – 630,000 inhabitants – has often promised to tackle these crimes in the hope of joining the European Union. “Our thoughts this evening are with the families who have lost loved ones and the residents of Cetinje. All of Montenegro feels and shares your pain. We pray for the recovery of all the injured”wrote the country’s president, Jakov Milatovic, on X.
