Steph Deschamps / May 5, 2023
The 13-year-old who opened fire in a Belgrade school, killing nine people, will be admitted to a psychiatric center, Serbian President Aleksander Vucic announced Wednesday evening. The boy's parents have been taken into custody.
For a month, this elementary school student had been preparing for this attack. Among other things, he had drawn up a list of victims. He first killed a security guard, then shot three girls in the hallway before entering a classroom and targeting the teacher and students. Seven girls, one boy and a security guard were killed and six other students and a teacher were injured and transported to the hospital. The shooter's motive is not yet known.
One of the victims is of French nationality, the French Foreign Ministry said Wednesday evening.
The boy used his father's pistols. Many guns are in circulation among the Serbian population, left over from the Balkan wars of the 1990s. But such an incident is rare.
It is possible that the father of the shooter will be convicted for the shooting in place of his son. Since criminal responsibility is set at 14 years in Serbia, the 13-year-old boy cannot be held criminally responsible.