CETINJE, Montenegro (AP) — Montenegro declared three days of national mourning Saturday, a day after 10 people, including two children, were shot dead by a 34-year-old gunman who police said had recently shown a “change in BEHAVIOR .”
The attacker used a hunting rifle to first shoot to death two children, aged 8 and 11, and their mother, who lived as tenants in his house in the western town of Cetinje, in the Medovina neighborhood. He then went out into the street and randomly shot 13 other people, seven of them fatally. The gunman was later shot after a standoff with police.
Police investigating the rampage issued a statement Saturday saying it was not yet clear what drove the gunman — identified only by his initials, VB, but said people close to the gunman said he had recently begun to exhibit “a change in behavior, but there was nothing to show that he could commit such a crime.’ The perpetrator had an appointment to see a mental health specialist but went on a rampage before that.
The police statement also said that the officers dispatched to the scene were fired upon by the assailant and responded by firing at him at least 20 times and seriously injuring him.
“It is still being investigated whether he died as a result of the serious injury (by the police) or as a result of being shot by a local citizen,” the statement said.
The prosecutor coordinating the investigation, Andrijana Nastic, told reporters on Friday that the gunman was killed by a bystander and that a police officer was among the wounded. He said nine of the dead died on the spot and two died in hospital.
Witnesses to the shooting spree struggled Saturday to come to terms with the carnage. They described scenes of chaos and horror as the gunman unleashed his rage on innocent people going about their daily business on a hot summer afternoon.
“You could hear women crying, people screaming in panic that a man had a gun and was shooting indiscriminately around. I heard shots,” said witness Milena Stanojevic. “I have seen a lot of crying, tears and sadness and today, silence and disbelief.”
Cetinje, a town of about 17,000 and the seat of the former royal government of Montenegro, is located 36 kilometers (22 miles) west of Podogrica, the current capital of the small Balkan nation.
Four of the injured were taken to the Clinical Center in Podgorica for surgery and were still in intensive care on Saturday, according to the chief neurosurgeon there, Dr. Ivan Terzic. Two others were less seriously injured and are recovering in a hospital in Cetinje.
