An armed and drunk man killed twelve people, including two children, after an altercation in a restaurant on Wednesday January 1, in southern Montenegro, before committing suicide by shooting himself in the head while he was surrounded by police .
The drama began in the afternoon in a restaurant in the village of Bajice, near the town of Cetinje. The suspect, “after arguing with a customer with whom he had spent a large part of the day, and having drunk large quantities of alcohol, returned home, took a gun and killed four people”said police chief Lazar Scepanovic.
The 45-year-old killer then went to three other locations where he killed six more people, including a member of his own family, the restaurant owner and his 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 was located and surrounded. When the officers asked him “to put down his weapon, he shot himself in the head”said the police chief. “We tried to transport him to a hospital, but he succumbed to his injuries”he clarified.
Three days of national mourning
In a speech in the evening, Prime Minister Milojko Spajic announced a three-day national mourning, from Thursday to Saturday inclusive.
Evoking “a fight in a restaurant, during which weapons were drawn, and which escalated”Milojko Spajic also announced new restrictions to come on the possession of firearms. “This tragedy raises the question of who can have weapons in Montenegro”he added.
The police assured in a press release that this shooting was not “not the result of a confrontation between groups belonging to organized crime”. Organized crime and corruption have long plagued Montenegro, and the town of Cetinje has been particularly hard hit in recent months.
In June, two people died and three were injured in an explosion there – 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.
According to the Small Arms Survey (SAS), a Swiss research program, around 245,000 firearms are in circulation in Montenegro – for a population of 630,000.
“Our thoughts this evening are with the families who have lost loved ones and with the residents of Cetinje,” wrote the country’s president, Jakov Milatovic, on X.
“All of Montenegro feels and shares your pain. We pray for the recovery of all the injured”he assured.
