In what appears to have been a planned attack, a 13-year-old boy opened fire in a Belgrade classroom, killing eight children, injuring six more, and killing a school security guard.
Kosta Kecmanovi was identified as the shooter by police, who said that he had attended the institution in the heart of the Serbian city since 2019. They claimed he may have planned the attack for a month and had used two of his father’s firearms in the shooting.
The adolescent also had two petrol bombs, according to Veselin Mili, the commander of the Belgrade police, and “made a list of kids he planned to kill and their classes.” Mili determined that the deceased students were a boy and seven girls, all born between 2009 and 2011.
“The sketch looks like something from a video game or horror movie, which indicates that he planned in detail, by classes, whom to liquidate,” the man continued.
According to Mili, the guy opened fire on the security guard killed three females in a hallway before walking into a history class and shooting the instructor and five students. He was later apprehended in the school playground after confessing to the shooting and was brought away with his head covered.
Kecmanovi cannot be charged with a crime because he is under the age of 14, according to the prosecutor’s office in Belgrade. He will be housed in a mental hospital. His parents were also taken into custody.
Serbia’s interior minister, Bratislav Gai, said: “The father claimed the arms were locked in a safe with a code, but apparently the kid had the code.” He removed the pistols and three magazines, each holding 15 rounds.
The health minister, a neurosurgeon named Danica Grujii, cried as she described the events as “perhaps the most horrifying experience I have had as a doctor and as a human being.” The education minister, Branko Rui, declared three days of mourning.
Father of a student at the Vladislav Ribnikar school, Milan Miloevi, claimed that his daughter was in the class where the gun was fired. “She was able to get away. The broadcaster N1 was informed by the boy that “[the boy]… first shot the teacher and then started shooting randomly.”
After hearing about the incident, Miloevi, who claimed to have arrived at the school quickly, continued, “I noticed the security guard laying under the table. Two girls that I saw had blood on their clothing. According to reports, the shooter was quiet and a decent student.
I heard the firing, a student who was in a sports lesson downstairs when the shooting started told the local media. It never stopped. I had no idea what was going on. On the phone, we were getting some texts.
The unnamed student claimed that the suspect was a “quiet guy” who “looked nice.” She stated that although we didn’t know much about him, he had “excellent grades. He wasn’t as forthcoming with everyone. I certainly didn’t anticipate this to occur.
Eight children and a security officer had been slain, according to a statement from the interior ministry, and six children and the teacher had been brought to the hospital. The local mayor, Milan Nedeljkovi, stated that physicians were attempting to preserve the life of the instructor.
According to Nedeljkovi, the security guard for the school likely saved more lives by placing himself in harm’s way. Nedeljkovi told reporters outside the school that the victim “wanted to prevent the tragedy and was the first victim.”
Milika Asanin, the head of the university hospital in Belgrade, stated that the facility was treating the teacher and three students. One patient was revived, he said. Both his neck and chest were hurt. One student received gunshot wounds to both arms, the stomach, and the left leg. Both of the teacher’s hands and stomach are hurt.
Mass shootings are incredibly uncommon in Serbia and the larger Balkan region. In the most recent years, none have been connected to schools. In the village of Velika Ivana in central Serbia, a veteran of the Balkan wars murdered 14 people in 2013.
Serbia has highly severe gun laws, and the government has granted multiple amnesties to owners who turn in or register illicit firearms, but experts have frequently warned about the risk posed by the hundreds of thousands of illegal firearms that have been left in the region as a result of the 1990s wars and civil instability.
“I observed children screaming as they fled the school. Parents arrived in a panic. A girl who attends a high school close to the Vladislav Ribnikar school said on state television, “Later I heard three gunfire.
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