Kumodraz Cafe Victim Named as Darko Veskovic Prika

The victim of the cafe shooting on Peke Dapcevica Street in Belgrade’s Kumodraz neighbourhood has been identified as Darko Veskovic Prika (46). He was killed on June 22 at around 4 p.m., while a second man was seriously wounded in the same attack and taken to the Military Medical Academy. Police are searching for the attacker, who fled after the shooting.

According to available information, Veskovic had for years been linked to the Skaljari clan and to the convicted Filip Korac. He was regarded as one of the organisers of contract killings during the war between the rival Kavac and Skaljari factions. His name had appeared in police files well before this latest incident, placing the investigation into his killing within the broader context of the clan conflict.

How did the legal history of the case unfold?

Veskovic was on trial for the murder of Blazo Djurovic, who was killed in the Dusanovac district in March 2018. He was arrested in Zagreb in April 2018 on a Serbian warrant. The Belgrade Higher Court later sentenced him to 15 years in prison. That verdict was overturned by the Belgrade Appellate Court two months ago, which ordered a retrial.

The reversal means Veskovic’s guilt in that case had not been finally established at the time of his death. The retrial is now left without its principal defendant, and the procedural outcome of the matter takes on an entirely different course. The legal status of the 2018 case thus overlaps with the new investigation that police and prosecutors are conducting into the Kumodraz shooting.

Surveillance footage reportedly captured the moment of the attack. It is said to show the attacker first shaking hands with the victim, then opening fire from behind. An intensive search has been launched, and officers of the Interior Ministry carried out the on-site examination. No official statement on the identity of the suspect had been issued by the time of publication.

What does the killing mean for the clan conflict?

The killing of a man linked to organising murders in the clan war rarely stays an isolated event. The judicial context, in which the principal defendant in an earlier murder had his sentence overturned shortly before he himself was killed, further complicates the picture. The investigation will have to establish whether the motive was revenge, a clash of interests within the structures, or something else.

At this stage no theory has been confirmed. Prosecutors and police are gathering evidence, and until a suspect is possibly arrested, any claim about the background remains a matter of conjecture. What is certain is that this is another death in a series tied to the conflict between the Kavac and Skaljari clans, which Serbia’s judiciary has been tracking for years.

Will the retrial for the 2018 murder be concluded at all now that the principal defendant has been killed?