Shooting in Sabac: former crime boss Sandokan wounded

Milan Ostojic, known by the nickname Sandokan, was shot on the night between July 8 and 9, at around 11 p.m., near a shopping center and the bus station in Sabac. Ostojic is publicly described as a former leader of the so-called Sabac criminal group. According to early, still unofficial information, several shots were fired at him.

He suffered wounds to the back and the pelvic area. After receiving first aid at the Sabac Health Center, he was transferred by ambulance to the Military Medical Academy in Belgrade because of the severity of his injuries. According to available information, he was conscious during the transfer.

Shortly after the shooting, police sealed off part of Sabac and began an on-scene investigation. There have been no arrests so far, and the search for the attacker is ongoing. The circumstances of the shooting, as well as the motive, are being examined by the competent authorities. Until that process is complete, any claim about the background of the attack remains speculation.

Ostojic is not an unknown name to the justice system. He has a prior record, including a conviction for incitement to murder. His sentence was reduced by a ruling of the appeals court, and he has been free since 2018. For years his name has been linked to score-settling within the Sabac criminal milieu.

What is known about the background of the attack?

At this point, no official statement about the motive has been released. An attack on a person with a criminal record in Serbian cities almost automatically raises the question of whether it was a personal dispute or a clash between rival groups. That answer will only come from the on-scene investigation, forensic analysis of the traces, and statements from any witnesses.

What is known is that the shooting happened in a busy spot, near a shopping center and the bus station, at an hour when that area is usually crowded. The choice of location and timing, out in the open and in the city center, fits a pattern investigators study carefully in similar cases. Such attacks are rarely random.

Sabac has been the scene of clashes tied to organized crime before. Local criminal structures, their overlaps, and old unresolved matters from earlier years are part of a context that cannot be ignored. Still, until prosecutors announce their first findings, everything remains at the level of possible lines of inquiry.

How the investigation is unfolding

After sealing off part of the city and completing the on-scene work, the authorities will collect traces from the location, review surveillance footage in the area, and take statements from people who were nearby when the shots were fired. Based on that evidence they will reconstruct the attacker’s movements and escape route.

The condition of the wounded man and the course of his treatment at the Military Medical Academy will also matter for how the case proceeds. If his condition stabilizes, his own statement could be significant, although in clashes of this kind the injured party is often unwilling to cooperate with the investigation.

The first official information from police and prosecutors is still awaited. For now, the only certainty is that gunfire once again rang out in a public place in the center of Sabac, and that a man with a serious criminal record ended up at the VMA. How long will it take investigators to establish who fired in the middle of the city, and why?