The primary suspect in a mass shooting, which occurred near Belgrade, was apprehended by police on Friday as the nation of Serbia saw itself shocked and horrified by its second mass shooting in less than 48 hours.
On Thursday, a gunman seemingly went on a rampage in a village near Smederevo, a Serbian city about 40 miles southeast of the capital city Belgrade. The gunman initially killed five and injured six in what was described as a “drive by”-style shooting before proceeding to the village of Dubona where he continued his rampage, killing three additional people and injuring eight.
The man then reportedly forced a taxi driver to take him further south yet, to a village 60 miles from Dubona. It was there that police apprehended the man they suspect was the menace behind these attacks, who has only been identified as Uros Blazic.
Police also reported searching U.B.’s cottage where they found a small arsenal of weapons including multiple guns, bullets and cartridges of varying calibers, a hunting knife and hand grenades. They stated that U.B. was 21 years of age, and Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic said during a somber national address that the suspect wore a T-shirt emblazoned with an unspecified neo-Nazi symbol.
What makes this situation particularly bizarre is that this rampage constitutes the second mass shooting in less than two days in the Republic of Serbia where such acts of seemingly random gun violence are a rarity compared to the United States.
The first such shooting was committed by a 13-year-old boy attending Belgrade’s Vladislav Ribnikar Elementary School where the teenager killed eight students and one security guard on Wednesday. The suspect’s father has been arrested, but the perpetrator himself will not be held criminally responsible, as the prosecutor’s office has reiterated that Serbia’s law on juvenile offenders only allows them to charge perpetrators aged 14 and older. The suspect will instead be detained in a special psychiatric facility, according to Vucic.
There is no indication yet that the two incidents are related though the coincidence is astonishing. The first was a school shooting perpetrated by an adolescent on the cusp of the age of reason in an outburst of seemingly nihilistic violence. The second, more recent, shooting has been reported as an act of terrorism with media noting the suspect’s affinity for neo-Nazi paraphernalia.
While the former Yugoslav Republic of Serbia, which still carries scars from the bloody Yugoslav wars of the 1990s, is no stranger to violence, these mass shootings are of an altogether different variety of bloodshed than the country is yet accustomed to. Vucic announced his intention to pursue aggressive reforms in gun control and school security to ensure that such a tragedy is not repeated in the Balkan nation.
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