Montenegrin police are searching in the city of Cetinje for a shooter who killed seven people, including two children, this Wednesday after a dispute in a bar.
The police, who deployed special forces to search for the armed fugitive in Cetinje, about 30 kilometers northwest of the capital, Podgorica, identified the shooter only by his initials, AM, and said he was 45 years old.
Security forces asked city residents to stay home while they locate the suspect. The police statement indicates that the man opened fire in the bar and fled the scene armed.
Public television RTCG indicates that the suspect, of whom a photograph is broadcast, was known for his erratic behavior and had previously been arrested for illegal possession of weapons.
After an argument, AM went home to get a gun, returned to the bar, opened fire, killing and wounding several people. He then went to another location where he murdered the bar owner’s children and a woman, according to RTCG.
Mass shootings are rare in Montenegro but in 2022, 11 people, including two children, were killed in another gun incident.
Despite the strict laws on gun ownership, numerous illegal weapons continue to circulate in the Western Balkans and come, in part, from the wars of disintegration of the former Yugoslavia.
