Montenegrin protesters slam police handling of mass shooting

4/1/2025 6:47

Hundreds of Montenegrins protested in the capital Podgorica on Friday against what they see as a lack of action by authorities to prevent a mass shooting in which a gunman killed 12 people and seriously wounded four.



In one of the Balkan nation's worst mass killiings, 45-year-old Aco Martinovic went on the rampage on Wednesday afternoon after drinking heavily in the small town of Cetinje and managed to evade the police for many hours.



Those he shot included his own sister. He later turned his gun on himself, dying early on Thursday of his wounds.



Many Montenegrins are angry over what they see as slow reform of an understaffed and under-resourced police force and bureaucratic and political wrangling within the government.



The protesters first stood in silence to commemorate the victims of the shooting and then hurled insults at police who cordoned off the government building in the city centre. Some protesters tried to break through a security fence.