The toll of the shooting in Montenegro is heavy. An armed and drunk man killed 12 people, including two children, according to the latest information from the prosecution, after an altercation in a restaurant on Wednesday in the south of the country. A three-day national mourning was declared.
What happened?
The drama began on Wednesday January 1 around 4:30 p.m. GMT (5:30 p.m. in Paris) 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 victims were killed in five different locations, according to the prosecutor. The murderer notably killed a member of his own family, the owner of the restaurant and two of his children, aged 10 and 13.
An initial report showed at least ten deaths, but it increased on Thursday: the prosecution indicated that the shooting ultimately left 12 dead. “Twelve people were killed, including two children,” prosecutor Andrijana Nastic told the media.
Four people were also seriously injured and taken to a hospital in the capital, Podgorica.
As of Thursday morning, three of them were still in critical condition while the fourth, who suffered a head injury, was in very critical condition, hospital director Aleksandar Radovic told reporters.
Who is the alleged attacker?
The suspected murderer was a 45-year-old man. 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.
A three-day national mourning
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.
“This tragedy raises the question of who can have weapons in Montenegro,” he added.
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 region prey to “organized crime”
The police assured in a statement 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 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 inhabitants.
“Our thoughts are this evening (this Wednesday) to the families who have lost loved ones and to 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.
