Mass Shooting in Montenegro Leaves 12 Dead

A mass shooting in Montenegro on Thursday, January 2nd, has left 12 dead with the shooter dying from self-inflicted gun wounds. Montenegrin Prime Minister Milojko Spajic declared three days of national mourning after calling the mass shooting a “terrible tragedy.”

The shooting, quickly considered as one of the worst mass killings in the nation, began on Wednesday in Cetinje when Aleksandar Aco Martinovic, 45, opened fire at a restaurant and killed four people. Martinovic left the scene and shot eight more people, two of them being children, in three separate locations.

National Police Director Lazar Scepanovic, when talking to the press after the shooting, stated that the victims had close connections to Martinovic. He said, “All the victims were his godfathers, friends,” concluding his remarks by saying that the motive for his actions are “still unknown.”

Interior Minister Danilo Saranovic recounted the moment when authorities tracked down the gunman, saying, “When he saw that he was in a hopeless situation, he attempted suicide. He did not succumb to his injuries on the spot, but during the transport to [the] hospital.”

Police reports say that Martinovic had a history of possessing illegal weapons and has been a heavy drinker leading up to the mass shooting event. After an incident between him and other patrons at the restaurant on Wednesday, he went home to retrieve his weapon and returned to the restaurant, where he then opened fire.

On Friday, January 3rd, Prime Minister Milojko Spajic scheduled a session for the National Security Council to deliberate measures to bolster public safety, including the detection of weapons, and discuss the aftermath of the mass shooting incident. Spajic said the security council would “urgently consider all options” including a complete ban on the possession of weapons.

This event is the second shooting in three years for the town of Cetinje. In 2022, a shooter killed 10 people, two of them being children. Gun control remains an issue in the Western Balkan nations as gun culture has been prevalent with weapons being easily accessible due to recent wars.