Montenegrin police chief Zoran Brdjanin said in a video statement released to the media that the attacker was a 34-year-old man he identified only by his initials, VB. Brjanin said the man used a hunting rifle to first shoot to death two children aged 8 and 11 and their mother, who lived as tenants in the attacker’s home in the Medovina neighborhood of Cetinje. The gunman then went out into the street and randomly shot 13 other people, seven of them fatally, the chief said. “At this time, it is unclear what caused VB to commit this heinous act,” Brjanin said.
“An unprecedented tragedy”
Adriana Nastic, the prosecutor coordinating the crime scene investigation, told reporters that the gunman was killed by a bystander and a police officer was among the wounded. He said nine of the dead died on the spot and two died at a hospital where they were taken for surgery. Police officers guarding a scene linked to the shootings in Cetinje. (Stevo Vasilievich/Reuters) Cetinje, the seat of Montenegro’s former royal government, is located 36 kilometers west of Podogrica, the current capital of the small Balkan nation. Prime Minister Dritan Abazovic wrote on his Telegram channel that the incident was “an unprecedented tragedy” and urged the nation “to be, in its thoughts, with the families of the innocent victims, their relatives, friends and all its people Cetinje”. President Milo Djukanovic said on Twitter that he was “deeply moved by the news of the terrible tragedy” in Cetinje, calling for “solidarity” with the families who lost loved ones in the incident.
