Yesterday morning, XNUMX-year-old KK killed eight students and a security worker of the "Vladislav Ribnikar" Elementary School in the center of Belgrade and wounded six students and a teacher.
The head of the Belgrade Police Department, Veselin Milić, said that the boy, a seventh-grade student, planned the crime for a month and that he had a list of children he planned to kill.
"He made a plan for entering and leaving the school and determined, as he stated, priority targets. The sketch looks like something from a video game, which indicates that he planned in detail how to get into which departments," said Milić at a press conference in the Government of Serbia.
Milić said that the boy did not tell the police what was the motive for his crime, but that he consciously chose May 3 as the date of execution and the history classroom, because it is near the entrance to the school in Vračar and because his department had the first class.
The chief said that KK had two pistols owned by his father, as well as four Molotov cocktails, and that immediately after entering the school, he killed the guard, the student on duty and two female students who happened to be there. After that, he changed the frames and went to the history room, where he shot the teacher and other children. After that, he left the school and called the police on duty from the yard to tell them what he had done. The police announced that the boy was arrested and that the motive for the attack is being investigated.
KK is criminally irresponsible because he has not reached the age of 14. The boy's father was detained for up to 48 hours on suspicion of having committed a criminal offense - serious offenses against general security. His mother was also arrested
The history teacher and six students were hospitalized, some with life-threatening injuries.
Student Evgenija (14), who knows the perpetrator, said that he was a "quiet and nice" boy who had good grades. "I didn't know much about him, he wasn't open with everyone, but I wouldn't have expected that to happen," she told Reuters.
"I heard noises and thought the boys were throwing firecrackers, but then I heard it even closer and saw the guard fall to the floor," said the girl, adding that she then ran away.
Minister of Education Branko Ružić said that the security ring provided for schools was still in place yesterday morning, and that video surveillance and the security guard who lost his life, as well as the school policewoman who was on patrol, were functioning. He added that a team of psychologists was urgently called to help children, employees and parents who are facing, as he stated, a traumatic period.
Police Minister Bratislav Gašić said that the boy's father was arrested and that there was a license for both guns, Beta reported.
"The father said that the pistols were locked in a safe with a code, but the boy obviously knew what it read," Gasic said at a press conference in the Government building. He stated that the boy practiced shooting a gun and went to the shooting range with his father. The minister also stated that three magazines with 15 bullets each were found at the scene of the crime.
The higher public prosecutor's office in Belgrade announced that KK is not criminally responsible. According to the Law on Juvenile Offenders and Criminal Legal Protection of Minors, KK is criminally irresponsible because he has not reached the age of 14.
By order of the Higher Public Prosecutor's Office in Belgrade, the boy's father VK (48) was detained for up to 48 hours on suspicion of having committed the criminal offense of Serious Offenses against General Safety. Previously, the on-site investigation was carried out by on-duty deputy public prosecutors of the Department for General Crime and the Department for Juveniles of the Higher Public Prosecutor's Office in Belgrade, who ordered that a statement be taken from KK in the presence of an employee of the Center for Social Work and that a medical examination be carried out, after which the Center will decide what measures it will take further under its jurisdiction.
The President of Serbia, Aleksandar Vučić, said that the thirteen-year-old will be placed in the Clinic for Neuropsychiatry
Also, as stated by the Higher Public Prosecutor's Office, it was ordered that blood be taken from KK for toxicological analysis, in order to determine whether he was under the influence of alcohol, narcotics, or other psychoactive substances at the time of the commission of the crime.
The President of Serbia, Aleksandar Vučić, said that yesterday was one of the most difficult days in the modern history of Serbia.
"Serbia is united in grief, it is so great that we don't remember it bigger. But when we are united in grief, we have to look at the causes, the responsibility of each of us, to look for solutions", said Vučić.
He said that KK will be housed in a special part of the Clinic for Neuropsychiatry and that the boy's mother was also arrested.
The Protector of Citizens, Zoran Pašalić, said that yesterday's tragedy was "the ultimate warning that as a society we have passed the critical point of increasing violence", Beta announced. Pašalić said in a written statement that "in just a generation or two, we have reached a phenomenon that was unimaginable three or four decades ago."
"I call on the whole society, from parents to educators to representatives of the legislative and executive authorities, as well as children, to pay much more attention to prevention, education, but also to the contents that our children absorb daily from social networks and the media," said the protector of citizens.
The Education Union of Serbia announced that the tragedy in the elementary school is the epilogue of many unresolved problems that the union pointed out and that the school is an unsafe environment. They asked all state authorities to responsibly, long-term and systemically create conditions for a normal and safe life for children and employees and the daily fight against all forms of violence, especially in the education system.
The union announced that for years it has been warned about the increase of all forms of violence in schools.
"In a disturbed system of values in society, where all forms of violence are daily present in the media, on the Internet, on television and accessible to the youngest, where the family as the basic cell of society is gradually being destroyed, we believe that this is the epilogue of many unresolved problems that we pointed out as a union and that the school is an unsafe environment", the announcement stated.
Minister of Education Ružić stated, in response to a journalist's question whether KK had previously reported peer violence, that there was a trace of it, but that there was no violence in the elementary school.
"Regarding the peer violence that was perpetrated against the perpetrator of the event, the system did not fail even then, there are findings from the clinic in Tiršova, it is about a cut on the lip that occurred at a private acting school, and on that basis it cannot be reported the conclusion that further action was necessary," said Ružić.
Seventeen-year-old Luka, a student at the high school located next to "Vladislav Ribnikar", said that it was a tragedy that had been preparing for a long time.
"This is a mistake that the entire Serbian society has been making for more than a decade... this popularization of violence through the public and the media, through art, through everything," he told Reuters.
Director of the Clinical Center of Serbia, Milika Ašanin, announced yesterday afternoon that the situation is better when it comes to the current state of health of the injured, N1 reported.
"Of the four operated on, three have completed their operation and are in the intensive care unit. Two students are fully awake, extubated, and the teacher is slowly waking up. At this moment, they are completely stable", said Ašanin.
"As for the fourth patient, he was in a very bad general condition when he was admitted, it was about complex injuries, gunshot injuries to the chest, neck and spine, additional diagnostics are being carried out. I hope for a favorable outcome there as well", said Ašanin.
The Government of Serbia made a decision on three days of mourning on the territory of Serbia starting from Friday May 5th to Sunday May 7th.
Vučić: Move the limit for criminal responsibility from 14 to 12 years
Yesterday, Vučić proposed to the Serbian government the introduction of concrete measures in order to prevent "some new national tragedy". The main proposal is to move the age limit for criminal legal responsibility from 14 to 12 years.
"Due to the fact that nowadays maturity occurs earlier, as well as physical strength, it is possible for younger children to commit criminal acts, my proposal is to consider the possibility of lowering the age limit for criminal legal responsibility of minors from 14 to 12 years, while respecting international and European standards," Vučić told reporters at the Presidency.
He stated that today there are 766.665 registered weapons in Serbia and proposed to the government, except when it comes to hunting weapons, to introduce a moratorium on the issuance of licenses for keeping and carrying weapons in the next two years, as well as to audit all licenses issued so far.
Vučić also suggested checking whether the legal requirements for the legal storage of weapons by persons who have a permit are met, as well as whether access to minors and other unauthorized persons is prevented.
He also requested the prescription of criminal legal responsibility for persons who enable minors and other unauthorized persons to get possession of firearms and who train them to handle these weapons.
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