Shooting at Batajnica dog shelter, owner disarms gunman
The owner of a dog shelter in Belaricka Street was shot in the right leg, then wrestled the pistol away from his attacker. A suspect identified as A. S. was arrested within minutes.
A man walked up to the gate of a dog shelter in Batajnica on Thursday morning and fired a single shot at the owner. The wounded man did not go down. He went straight at the gunman and pulled the pistol out of his hands.
The shooting happened at around 9.40 a.m. at 715 Belaricka Street, on the grounds of a shelter local media identify as Zoovita. The man hit was the owner and director of the shelter, Dragan C. (53). The bullet struck him in the right leg.
Disarmed, then the axe
Losing the pistol did not end the attack. The assailant grabbed an axe and went for a shelter employee, R. R. (64), who was in the yard at the time. The employee was not hurt.
Paramedics treated the wounded director at the scene and drove him to Bezanijska Kosa hospital in Belgrade.
Arrest within minutes
The first patrols came from the Zemun police station, which covers Batajnica. Officers sealed off the streets around the shelter and started a search. The suspect was found shortly after the attack, overpowered and handcuffed on the spot.
He has been identified only as A. S., and Serbian media give his age differently, either 51 or 52. The Criminal Police Directorate, known in Serbia as UKP, was notified immediately, and forensic officers processed the scene.
What is known about the attack itself:
- one shot was fired near the shelter gate, in the direction of the owner
- the pistol ended up in the hands of the man who had just been shot
- the axe was used to threaten a second employee, who escaped injury
What was behind it?
No official motive has been released. Unofficially, the suspect and the wounded man knew each other and had a dispute that predates the shooting.
That points the investigation in a specific direction. Investigators are not working a random encounter, they are working a relationship with a history, which changes the questions put to everyone who was in the yard.
Until a final verdict, A. S. remains a suspect. Guilt is established in court, not at a crime scene.
What happens next
Serbian police may hold a suspect for up to 48 hours. After that the prosecutor’s office takes over and decides whether to ask for custody, which a preliminary proceedings judge can order for up to 30 days.
The seized pistol goes to ballistic examination. That report will show whether the shot that hit Dragan C. came from that weapon and whether the gun was legally registered. It also decides whether an illegal firearms possession count is added to the main charge.
The axe is treated separately. Threatening the second employee after being disarmed is a distinct act in Serbian criminal law, with its own witness and its own legal qualification. R. R. is both an injured party and the closest eyewitness to what happened after the shot.
The next real step is the prosecutor’s decision on custody and on how the case will be charged. Only then will it be clear whether this is filed as attempted murder or as grievous bodily harm, and the gap between those two counts is measured in years in prison.
