What we know about the school shooting in Belgrade, Serbia

CNN
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A 13-year-old boy opened fire on classmates at a school in the Serbian capital, Belgrade, on Wednesday, shocking the Balkan country.

The shooting left at least eight children dead, along with a security guard. While Serbia is awash with guns, mass shootings like these are rare.

Here’s what we know.

The horrific events unfolded early in the school day on Wednesday at Vladislav Ribnikar Primary School, a well-known institution in Vraar, an upscale area of ​​the Serbian capital.

After arriving at the school, the suspect immediately took out the pistol from the bag and shot the school’s security guard, the police chief of Belgrade, Veselin Mili.

He then walked over to the clerk on duty and sat down at his desk as if he had done nothing wrong. There was a girl at her desk, another at the piano. He took his life.

The suspect then walked toward a history class, shooting as he moved down the hall, before entering the room and shooting the teacher and his classmates through the door, Mili said.

He walked out of the classroom, into the school yard, dropping the magazine from his gun, throwing it down the stairs. The suspect called the police himself and waited until he was arrested in the yard, officials said.

Seven girls and one boy were killed, Mili said. Six other children and a teacher were hospitalized, according to Serbia’s Ministry of Internal Affairs.

The boy was a student at the school, authorities said.

He had two weapons in his possession, the Serbian interior minister added at a press conference.

The parent had several guns and kept them locked up. The safe had a code. Of course, the kid had the code once he got hold of those two guns. And three frames full of 15 bullets each, said Bratislav Gasic.

Separately, Mili said the boy had a 9 mm pistol, as well as a small-caliber pistol in a bag, as well as four Molotov cocktails.

The alleged attacker was filmed being taken from the school in handcuffs with a jacket over his head and wearing blue skinny jeans.

The prosecution said the boys’ blood was taken for toxicology tests to determine if he was under the influence of alcohol, narcotics or other psychoactive substances at the time of the shooting.

All the circumstances of this case are being investigated, how he got the weapon, as well as the motives of this serious crime, the statement says.

The parents of the suspects were arrested on Wednesday. Gashiq said that it was known that the father had previously gone to a training ground with his son.

Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic said the suspect did not show remorse for the shooting.

The suspect will not be held criminally responsible as he has not reached the age of 14, the Office of the High Public Prosecutor in Belgrade said in a statement.

The prosecutor’s office said this is in accordance with Serbian law; it is added that the father of the boys was ordered to be detained for up to 48 hours, on suspicion of having committed the criminal offense of serious offenses against the General Security.

It remains unclear what measures will be taken against the suspect. The lawyers of the Belgrade Education Union, Aleksandra Bevenja and Vladimir Boi, told CNN affiliate N1 that elementary school students are not excluded even for a serious offense in Serbia.

But N1 reported that a child can be transferred to another school if the new institution approves the move.

The shooting has shocked Serbia and sparked a national conversation about the country’s laws.

President Vucic suggested in a press conference on Wednesday that the government should consider lowering the country’s age of criminal responsibility to 12.

He justified his suggestion by arguing that children nowadays are becoming adults earlier and added that the government would have to consult respected lawyers and international laws when considering his suggestion.

Vucic added that officials have doubts that this boy knew that he would not be prosecuted.

Vucic also suggested mandatory drug tests in schools every six months and said the government would work to have more police officers in schools.

Education Minister Branko Ruzic said that the cancerous, harmful influence of online video games of so-called Western values ​​is evident and it is clear to all of us that a major turnaround is needed.

Three days of mourning have been announced in Serbia, and other European countries have also sent condolences.

But the event also caused outrage. Crowds of protesters gathered in Belgrade and cheered the resignation at a vigil outside Serbia’s Ministry of Education late Wednesday.

Serbia, a southern European country of nearly 7 million people, has more than 2,700,000 privately owned guns, a large ratio that is a legacy of years of conflict in the 1990s.

Only 44% of those weapons are officially registered, according to a 2018 analysis by the Small Arms Survey.

That means there are 39 guns for every 100 Serbs, the data project at the Geneva Graduate Institute found. It is the highest level of civilian gun ownership in Europe and the fifth highest in the world. More than 1.5 million guns owned by people in Serbia are unregistered, the data show.

And yet shootings of this type are relatively rare, largely due to the country’s strict gun laws and amnesties for owners who surrender or register illegal firearms, according to Reuters.