Boy who committed massacre at Belgrade's Ribnikar elementary school blames parents in statement to prosecutor

K.K. (14), who committed mass murder at the Vladislav Ribnikar Elementary School in Belgrade on May 3, 2023, by killing 9 students and one school worker, testified on Tuesday to point the finger at his parents, Vladimir and Miljana Kecmanonovic.

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K.K. cannot be put on trial because he was under 14 when he committed the massacre, but his parents have been charged with a serious crime against general security and with unauthorized possession of ammunition.

The court date yesterday was held at the Special Court in Belgrade in order protect the safety of the minor and, according to unofficial information, he stood at the court rostrum, while the parents of the murdered children sat behind the glass in the audience section.

According to unconfirmed information, when the boy previously gave his statement to the prosecutor via video link from a children's psychiatric institution where he is being held, in the presence of the prosecutor and his mother, he said that he committed the mass murder using two of his father's pistols.

He also said that at the time that he "easily found them in a closet in the apartment and moved them to his room two days before the crime." K.K. then confirmed that his father was taking him to a shooting range, and telling him he was "proud of the way he shoots, his technique and precision."

K.K. certainly spoke more about his parents in front of the prosecutor at the time, but that part of his statement did not appear in detail in public.

The criminal proceedings against Kecmanonovic have been closed to the public from the beginning, but some information appeared from the court date. Unofficial reports say that the boy spoke about his parents yesterday as well and effectively shifted the blame for the mass murder he committed in the school to his father and mother.

"If I didn't have my father's guns, I wouldn't have committed the massacre. The weapons were within my reach," K.K. allegedly said during his testimony.

The boy didn't have nice words about his mother either. He said that she was the one who demanded that he must be the best at everything and that her behavior was the trigger for him to go to Ribnikar armed and shoot his schoolmates dead.

K.K. did not finish his testimony and will continue speaking on October 17. All participants in the proceedings - the court, the prosecution, lawyers, his parents, but also the parents of the murdered children, have the legal right to ask him questions that he must answer because he agreed to testify. K.K. spoke in court on Tuesday for more than three hours.

His father, Vladimir Kecmanonovic, who is in custody, faces 12 years in prison if found guilty, while his wife Miljana has been released pending the outcome of the trial. The prosecutor is asking 2.5 years for her.

Vladimir Kecmanonovic is accused of not keeping weapons and ammunition separately, and also of not storing them properly, while Miljana Kecmanonovic has been charged because her DNA was found on a bullet casing discovered next to the a classroom door in the Vladislav Ribnikar Elementary.

(Telegraf.rs)