Serbia declares mourning from 5 to 7 May

As a result of the first shooting in the modern history of Serbia in Belgrade on the morning of May 3, nine people were killed. The killer, a 13-year-old seventh-grader, was a reserved straight-A student, and the reason for the attack could have been a bad grade from a history teacher, whom the attacker had severely wounded.

The tragedy occurred at the comprehensive school “Vladislav Ribnikar”, located in the Vracar district near the center of Belgrade. A few minutes before the end of the first lesson, the student, referred to by the Serbian media as K.K., entered the school building, where he ran into a security guard. The security guard became the first victim of the school shooter.

Then the young man fired at three students who met him in the corridor, and then entered the class located on the first floor, not far from the entrance, where there was a history lesson. There he opened fire on the teacher and the children. In the ensuing chaos, several students managed to escape through the windows.

In other classes, the teachers, realizing that there was shooting, locked themselves inside with the students. According to preliminary police reports, KK fired about 20 bullets from two pistols, reloading them several times. Then he himself called the police, but they, apparently, already knew about what was happening – the assistant to the history teacher, who managed to escape from the classroom, was the first to get through to the security forces.

The shooter surrendered to the arriving police. According to representatives of the Serbian police, two pistols were found on him, and four bottles with a Molotov cocktail were found in his backpack. The young man was taken out of the school building with a jacket on his head.

According to Serbian President Aleksandar Vučić, the killer is undergoing a psychiatric examination. According to preliminary data, as a result of the tragedy, nine people died – a guard and eight students. The history teacher and at least four other children were in Belgrade hospitals in serious condition.

The school administration announced the search for blood donors for the wounded, and within a few hours, local authorities reported that there were even more donors than needed. Among those who came to the local blood transfusion station were Russians living in Belgrade.

Acquaintances of the shooting teenager, judging by their stories in the media and social networks, characterize him as a “closed honors student” from whom “you do not expect violence.” According to one of the versions discussed by the officials involved in the investigation, the reason for the crime was a bad grade that the student received from the teacher who was injured in the shooting.

Representatives of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Serbia say that the criminal had been preparing for a month and even drew a rough shooting plan with a list of people who should be killed first. As part of the proceedings, searches have already been carried out at the criminal’s house, and his father has been detained as part of the case. According to information available in the Serbian media, he owned officially registered pistols.

The young man himself, according to the law, cannot be prosecuted as a minor.

This is the first such crime in the modern history of Serbia. And, apparently, the case will not be limited to the proceedings with the direct participants in the tragedy.

President Vučić has already said that the authorities will look for those responsible at all levels of the education system. And local politicians have already begun to look for more global causes of what happened. For example, Tamara Milenkovic-Kerkovic, a representative of the right-wing Doors party, blamed the tragedy on a government that tolerates “pathological values” and demanded the resignation of the country’s Minister of Education, Branko Ruzic, the highest-ranking official in the education system, who arrived at the scene of the crime.

However, the majority of Serbian politicians have so far limited themselves to expressing grief and solidarity with the victims of the tragedy and their relatives. Mourning has been declared in Serbia from 5 to 7 May. Condolences were expressed by the authorities of almost all neighboring countries, representatives of the US and the EU, the embassies of Russia and Ukraine.