Authorities said a gunman entered a retirement home in a quiet Croatian town on Monday and opened fire, killing six people, including the man’s mother. Most of the dead were elderly people in their 80s and 90s, the prime minister said.
National Police Commissioner Nikola Mirina said five people were killed instantly and another died in hospital. Five were residents and one was a staff member. At least six people were injured, four of them seriously.
The suspect fled but police arrested him at a cafe near the facility in the town of Daruvar, Mirina said. Authorities were investigating the motive for the attack.
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Local television station N1 reported that the suspect was born in 1973 and is a decorated former police officer who served in the 1991-1995 Croatian war. Authorities said the suspect was known to police and had been involved in several previous incidents.
Authorities say the suspect’s mother had lived at the nursing home for 10 years.
Daruvar resident Zlatko Stuga told Nova television he knew the suspect from wartime. “People say he was very aggressive and he drank a lot,” he said.
Police officers stand near a crime scene in Daruvar, central Croatia, Monday, July 22, 2024. Authorities and media reports said an armed assailant entered an elderly care home in central Croatia on Monday and opened fire, killing five people and wounding several others. (Zeljko Pukhovskiy/Cropix via AP)
The attack left a shock and sadness in the town of Daruvar, a spa town in Slavonia with a population of 8,500.
Relatives of the residents gathered outside the modest one-story building to ask about the safety of their loved ones.
“My mother is 90 years old here,” Nina Samot told Nova TV. “To think something so horrible could happen in such a small town, especially with people inside. We’re waiting. Everybody’s in shock. The whole town is in shock.”
Mayor Damir Runeniček told N1 television that it was a great facility that could accommodate around 20 people.
“It’s hard to say what the cause or trigger was,” he said. “That will be revealed by the investigation.”
Croatian President Zoran Milanovic said he was shocked by the “brutal and unprecedented crime”, adding that it was his “final call for all authorities to do more to prevent violence in society, including by imposing stricter controls on gun ownership.”
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Police said the gun used by the suspect was unregistered. Many weapons are still kept in private homes in Croatia, even after the breakup of Yugoslavia in the 1990s. Private gun ownership is legal if you undergo a mental health examination.
