Queues to donate blood, queues to place a flower, queues to light a candle in front of the Vladislav Ribnikar elementary school which will be closed until Monday, and where the horror took place yesterday. Vracar, a district of embassies and museums in the heart of Belgrade, wakes up in mourning in the aftermath of what for everyone, by now, is the “American-style massacre”: 13-year-old Kosta Kecmanovicarmed with two rifles found in the house and four Molotov cocktails, fired yesterday shortly after the bell rang in a history class. Nine dead, seven injured.
The victims
Seven out of nine were girls. Kosta Kecmanovic, a student of the school for a few months, had a list of companions to be “liquidated” and among these, leaked today in the local media, was the little girl he was in love with. Eight comrades killed, including seven females, including her, for now anonymous. And among them Emilija Kobiljski, daughter of the national volleyball star Dragan, today in line with the other parents in front of the school. The guardian of the school Drahan Vlahovic also fell, loved by students and professors and also seems to be a friend of the young killer, but who tried to intervene to calm him down; seven other injured, including the teacher of the same subject in which Kosta had failed in recent days, history, I’m in the hospital in danger of life. Among the victims, the embassy confirmed, was a French girl.
Kosta’s portrait
Scholar and introvert, the comrades remember it; he had been studying at Vladislav Ribnikar for a few months and a few days ago had, it is said, acquired an uncommon failure in history. Fan of the dystopian series “The Purge”, who envisions a U.S. where murder is legal, frequently posted quotes from the series on social media. He called the police himself after the massacre: «My name is Kosta Kecmanovic, I’m at school and I killed some people. Come.” He has not yet turned 14 and will not be liable for prosecution. He was accompanied yesterday to a psychiatric clinic where, Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic told reporters yesterday, he shows no signs of “any emotion or remorse”. Negative to toxicology tests. Kosta was accustomed to shooting and carefully aimed at the chest or head of victims: an aim trained at the shooting range and hunting, where his father had often taken him with him. The duly registered weapons belonged to his father Vladimir, 48, a well-known radiologist in the capital and now under arrest. At home they were in a safe, but the boy knew the combination. His lawyer wife is also in custody, the appointment with the judge is Friday.
Government reactions
President Aleksandar Vucic of Serbia – who will miss the coronation of Charles III on Sunday, to which he was also invited – told a press conference that he will propose changes in the age of criminal responsibility: from 14 to 12 years. The shooting has raised broader questions about firearms in Serbia, which has one of the highest gun ownership rates in the world — 39 per 100 people, third in Europe — a legacy of the Balkan wars of the 1990s, but does not have high levels of gun violence. Vucic also promised on Wednesday to introduce a series of measures aimed at better regulating guns, including a moratorium on new licenses other than hunting licenses, a review of existing permits and increased surveillance of shooting ranges.
In the government press conference, he stated three days of national mourning from 7 to 10 May, the pro-Russian education minister Branko Ruzik spoke of «Western values», blaming «the influence of video games». Some comments on social networks by Kosta’s friends seem to prove him right: “A king”, writes one on Instagram, “Strike!” cheers another on TikTok. A little boy, kept anonymous by the media to avoid emulation, promises “a similar massacre” in his city. And yesterday another school in Belgrade, Desanka Maksimovic, called the police because in the afternoon one of their pupils, 9 years old and already described as “problematic”, would have presented himself with a list of “comrades I want to kill”.
