Heartbreaking cries rang out as funerals were held in Serbia on Saturday for some of the victims of two mass shootings that happened just a day apart this week, leaving 17 dead and 21 injured, many of them children.
The shootings on Wednesday at a school in Belgrade and on Thursday in a rural area south of the capital have left the nation stunned with grief and shock.
Although Serbia is awash in guns and is no stranger to crisis situations following the wars of the 1990s, a school shooting like Wednesday’s has never happened before. The most recent prior mass shooting was in 2013 when a war veteran killed 13 people.
The shooter on Wednesday was a 13-year-old boy who opened fire on his fellow students, killing seven girls, a boy and a school security guard. A day later, a 20-year-old man opened fire in two villages in central Serbia, killing eight people.
Classmates and hundreds of other people wept inconsolably as one of the girls killed in the Belgrade school shooting was buried in a small white coffin covered with mounds of flowers. Overwhelmed with grief, the girl’s mother could barely stand. A girl collapsed during the service screaming and sobbing.
As the country struggled to come to terms with the shootings, authorities promised a gun crackdown and said they would increase security in schools. Thousands lit candles and left flowers near the scene of the Belgrade shooting, in an outburst of grief and solidarity.
“My soul aches for them,” said Vesna Kostic, who came to pay her respects outside the school on Saturday. “I keep looking for a cause, a reason why this happened to him (the shooter), why this happened to us.”
Serbian media reported that four of the eight children killed in the school shooting, as well as Vladislav Ribnikar’s school security guard, were buried in Belgrade cemeteries on Saturday, the second day of a three-day mourning period for the victims.
About 50 kilometers to the south, a mass funeral was held in the small village of Malo Orasje for five young men who were shot in the shooting on Thursday night.
Sobbing mourners lined up to light candles as they waited for the coffins to be placed on five pews outside the village church for a service.
“Five graves! He [the killer] closed down five families,” a villager told N1 television. “How could this happen?”
Serbian police have said the suspected attacker stopped a taxi after his rampage and had the driver take him to a village further south, where he was arrested on Friday. Officers later said they found guns and ammunition in two homes he used there.
The suspect, identified as Uros Blazic, told prosecutors during interrogation in the central city of Smederevo that he shot people he did not know personally because he wanted to instill fear among residents, RTS state television reported. He is charged with first-degree murder and unauthorized possession of weapons and ammunition.
The motive for both shootings remained unclear. The 13-year-old boy, who is too young to face criminal charges, has been placed in a psychiatric clinic. His father was arrested for allegedly teaching his son how to use guns and not strapping his guns on tight enough.
The suspected village attacker was wearing a pro-Nazi T-shirt, authorities said, and complained of “humiliation”, though it was unclear what he meant. Serbian populist president Aleksandar Vucic promised that the “monsters” would “never see the light of day again”.
Those injured in the two shootings have been hospitalized and most have undergone complicated surgical procedures. A girl and a boy from the school shooting remain in serious condition; the village casualties are stable but under constant observation.
The school shooting injured six children and a teacher, while 14 people were injured in the villages of Malo Orasje and Dubona. The dead in Dubona included an off-duty police officer and his sister.
Authorities released a photo showing the suspected shooter when arrested: a young man in a police car wearing a blue T-shirt with the slogan “Generation 88” on it. The double eights are often used as shorthand for “Heil Hitler”, as the H is the eighth letter of the alphabet.
Aside from the crackdown on guns, officials have announced increased monitoring of social networks and the media. Several people had already been questioned on Saturday for posting threats or videos in support of the killers on social networks, the Tanjug news agency reported.
The Serbian Ministry of Education outlined a crisis plan for the students of the Vladislav Ribnikar School to gradually return to classes next Wednesday. A team of experts, supported by the UN children’s organization UNICEF, will provide support and oversee the process, the ministry said in a statement.
Experts have repeatedly warned that decades of crises and economic hardship, coupled with corrupt institutions and high levels of public and political intolerance, could push some people over the edge.
The populist-led Balkan country has refused to fully confront its role in the wars of the 1990s, war criminals are largely regarded as heroes, and minority groups routinely face harassment and sometimes physical violence.
“The question now is whether our society is ready to reject the model of violence,” warned psychologist Zarko Korac. “When you glorify a war criminal, you glorify his crimes and send a signal that it’s legitimate.”