A teenager shot dead nine people at his school in Belgrade with his father’s gun. According to the police, he is said to have planned the crime for months. The motive is unclear. The government ordered national mourning.
The teenager who killed nine people at his school in Belgrade is said to have planned the act for months. This was said by the Director of the Belgrade Police, Veselin Milic, at a press conference. Sketches and plans were found on the desk of the boy, who was born in 2009, that “looked like something out of a horror film or video game”. According to Milic, he acted according to plan and even had a list of potential victims.
He went to his school with his father’s gun and four incendiary devices in his pocket, where he first killed a security guard and two students. Then he went to his school class, where history lessons were in progress. He changed the magazine on his gun and opened fire from the doorframe, at the teacher and several students. He then ran into the schoolyard and called the police.
The motive for the crime is so far unclear. The boy was arrested in the schoolyard. The police and rescue workers went to the school in the center of Belgrade in large numbers. The police cordoned off the surrounding area on a large scale.
Three days of national mourning ordered
According to Milic, the teenager is not yet of criminal age and cannot be brought to justice. He has since been placed in a psychiatric facility. This was announced by Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic. Both the boy’s mother and father were also arrested.
“From that moment on, the boy is in a special place and is placed in a special ward of a psychiatric hospital,” Vucic told reporters. The government in Belgrade ordered three days of national mourning.
The 13-year-old’s father had a valid firearms license. The police suspect him of not keeping them properly. The boy shouldn’t have had access to them. As President Vucic explained in his press conference, the father is an “exemplary doctor”. At the same time, he expressed his surprise that the father had taken his son to a shooting range and practiced shooting with him.