Twelve people, including two children, were killed by a gunman who started a shooting in a restaurant in southern Montenegro on Wednesday January 1. The perpetrator of the shooting committed suicide by shooting himself in the head while he was surrounded by police.
An armed and drunk man killed twelve people, including two children, after an altercation in a restaurant on Wednesday in southern Montenegro, before killing himself by shooting himself in the head while he was surrounded by police.
The drama began around 4:30 p.m. GMT 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 much of the day, and while drinking large quantities of alcohol, returned home, took a gun and killed four people“, said police chief Lazar Scepanovic. The 45-year-old murderer then went to three other locations where he killed six other people, including a member of his own family, the restaurant owner and the latter’s two children, aged 10 and 13, 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 gun, he shot himself in the head“said Mr. Scepanovic. “An attempt was made to transport him to a hospital, but he succumbed to his injuries.“, he clarified.
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“, Mr. Spajic also announced new restrictions coming on gun ownership. “This tragedy raises the question of who can have weapons in Montenegro“, he added.
Crimes
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. The police assured in a press release that this shooting was “not the result of a confrontation between groups belonging to organized crime“.
Organized crime and corruption have long affected Montenegro, and the town of Cetinje has been particularly hard hit 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.
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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 inhabitants. “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.
(upday with AFP)
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