A drunk man opened fire on Wednesday, January 1, after an altercation in a restaurant. At least 12 people died, including 2 children.
The death toll from the shooting that occurred in a restaurant in southern Montenegro on Wednesday January 1 climbs from 10 to 12 deaths, the prosecutor announced this Thursday January 2.
“Twelve people were killed, including two children,” prosecutor Andrijana Nastic told the media.
The perpetrator of the shooting committed suicide with a gunshot to the head while he was surrounded by police. While a previous report reported 10 deaths, it rose to 12 deaths this Thursday, January 2.
An argument in a restaurant
The drama began around 5:30 p.m. 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 while he had drunk large quantities of alcohol, returned home, took a weapon 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. Among them, a member of his own family, the owner of the restaurant and two children of the latter, aged 10 and 13.
“Our thoughts this evening are with the families who lost loved ones and with the residents of Cetinje. All of Montenegro feels and shares your pain. We pray for the recovery of all the injured,” the country’s president, Jakov Milatovic, wrote on X .
Suspect ‘shot himself in the head’
After several hours of tracking by the police and the army, the shooter was located and surrounded. When officers asked him “to put down his gun, he shot himself in the head,” Lazar 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, from Thursday to Saturday inclusive.
Referring to “a fight in a restaurant, during which weapons were drawn, and which degenerated”, Milojko Spajic also announced new restrictions to come on the possession of firearms.
Organized crime trail unlikely
The police assured that this shooting was “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 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 passerby.
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