Serbia mourns 13 killed in 'monstrous' gun rampage

Serbia holds a national day of mourning Wednesday after a war veteran went on a killing spree, shooting dead 13 relatives and neighbours including his son, his mother and a two-year-old child, in his tiny village near Belgrade. It was the worst such incident in two decades in the Balkan country, shocked by what police called a "monstrous" crime. Police identified the gunman as 60-year-old Ljubisa Bogdanovic, who shot most of his victims in the head as they slept before trying to kill himself and his wife. Both were seriously wounded along with a third person, who later died in a hospital, Serbian police chief Milorad Veljovic told reporters at the scene on Tuesday. He said the victims who died -- six men, six women and the child -- include Bogdanovic's mother and his 42-year-old son. "Twelve people were killed on the spot while the 13th died in hospital," said Veljovic. According to the victims' neighbours the murdered child was a boy. Most of the victims were Bogdanovic's relatives. The motive for the attack in the village of Velika Ivanca, located about 50 kilometres (30 miles) south of Belgrade, was not immediately clear. Speaking to the police from her hospital bed, the gunman's wife said her husband had a "bad temper" but could not hint at a possible motive for the murders, Vecernje Novosti daily reported in its online edition. "I could not dream that he would do this. There have been no hints," the daily quoted Javorka Bogdanovic as saying. "He had a bad temper, but I did not dream of this. We were all like a big family," she said. Doctors from Belgrade's Emergency Hospital said her condition was "serious but stable," while her husband was "still in coma," the newspaper reported. Bogdanovic went house to house at 5:00 am local time (0300 GMT) methodically shooting his victims in five houses located on a hill on the outskirts of the village, police said. The houses are only some 10 metres (32 feet) away from each other. He is thought to have first killed his son and mother, then wounded his wife, before continuing on his shooting spree and then turning the gun on himself when a police patrol arrived. Residents of the village of about 1,700 inhabitants were in shock Tuesday and some wept as they tried to understand the reason behind the killings. Neighbours said Bogdanovic, who fought as a Serb soldier during the 1990s war in Croatia and had a firearms license, lost his job as a labourer last year. He then became a farmer. "I had a feeling that I was dreaming. When I woke up I saw my mother, killed at the entrance door to the house," Aleksandar Stekic told reporters. He was sleeping in another room while his mother was killed and his father was at work. "I ran to the first neighbour and I saw again a murdered woman at the entrance ... I was scared I ran towards my grandmother's house but I saw another neighbour killed," the 29-year-old recalled with tears in his eyes. Police briefly handcuffed him as they first suspected he was the perpetrator. Despite the tragedy, Stekic described the killer as a "good man." "He wouldn't hurt a fly ... I don't know what has happened." Visibly shocked villagers echoed his view saying the gunman was the "best neighbour," and "hard-working, always ready to help." Neighbours said Bogdanovic's father had committed suicide when he was a child while some of his family members had undergone psychiatric treatment in the past. The killer's brother Radmilo Bogdanovic, whose house sits on a hill facing the crime scene, insisted that "nothing could have hinted to this tragedy". "I ask myself only one thing: why, why has he done this? How could he do it, how?!" the 62-year-old told AFP, sobbing in the garden of his yellow-brick house strewn with children's toys. "He was a picture of honesty, as a child he was fearful... I don't understand what has happened to him... He was a normal man, something must have broken him ... the whole village is shocked." Radmilo Bogdanovic, his eyes red from crying, remembered that his brother was affected by the events of the 1991-1995 war in Croatia in which he took part. "Whenever I raised the issue, he would always reply, 'May God save you from living what we went through'."