New Belgrade robbery spree: suspect M.M., 53, arrested
A string of robberies across New Belgrade lasted about eight hours, with victims including a United States national and a Ukrainian woman. The suspect was arrested the same night.
Police arrested M.M., 53, in New Belgrade on Tuesday evening, suspected of a string of robberies spanning roughly eight hours. Attacks were reported at four locations, and the victims included a United States national and a Ukrainian woman. The suspect was overpowered on Nehru Street, shortly after the last attack was called in.
Officers from the New Belgrade Police Station recognized him from the description given by the victims. Criminal charges have been filed against him, and he has been placed in custody.
Four attacks in one afternoon and evening
- around 1 p.m., a bus stop near Belgrade Arena
- around 5 p.m., a sixth-floor apartment on Anti-Fascist Struggle Street
- around 9 p.m., a flower shop warehouse on Yuri Gagarin Street
- around 10 p.m., a driving school
In each of the four cases, the attacker used some form of force: a knife, his bare hands, a stun gun and a broken bottle. Three of the four victims were women.
Attack at the bus stop near the Arena
The first attack was reported around 1 p.m. The suspect was shirtless at the time, with a scarf wrapped around his head. He approached a 29-year-old United States national and demanded money at knifepoint.
According to the reconstruction of the attack, he spoke to him in English, shouting: “Give me the money!” He took 100 dollars, 100 euros and 10,000 dinars from the victim’s wallet. The young man was injured in the hand, elbow and hip as he fell.
Break-in on Anti-Fascist Struggle Street
Four hours later, around 5 p.m., the suspect entered a sixth-floor apartment on Anti-Fascist Struggle Street. A 23-year-old Ukrainian woman was inside at the time.
He struck her on the head, took 2,000 euros and gold jewelry, then fled. It was the only one of the four reported attacks to take place inside a residential space.
Stun gun at the flower shop, then a broken bottle at the driving school
Around 9 p.m., the attacks continued on Yuri Gagarin Street. At a flower shop warehouse, the suspect approached an employee and, threatening her with a stun gun, took the key to the building. He was unable to unlock the door and fled toward Gandhi Street.
Half an hour later, he entered a driving school. He grabbed an employee by the hair and pulled out a clump of it. He then cut her arm with a broken bottle and demanded money.
How did police find the suspect?
The answer was the description. The victims gave matching accounts of the attacker’s appearance, and the description was distinctive: a shirtless man with a scarf around his head, moving through the same part of the municipality throughout the day.
Patrol officers from New Belgrade spotted him on Nehru Street. He matched the description and was subdued on the street, then taken to the station and held. Less than a night passed between the last reported attack and the arrest.
What happens next
Criminal charges have been filed, and the competent prosecutor’s office will decide on further proceedings. Police custody lasts up to 48 hours by law, after which the suspect appears before a public prosecutor. Until a final verdict, M.M. is presumed innocent of the charges against him.
The pattern is not new. Multiple attacks in a short span of time, in a small area, tend to speed up identification, since the same description comes in through several independent reports. A suspect in two knife attacks was arrested in Belgrade under a similar pattern not long ago, stopped near the BIGZ building.
Two of the victims are foreign nationals. The amounts reported stolen in those two cases were 2,000 euros and gold jewelry from the apartment on Anti-Fascist Struggle Street, along with 100 dollars, 100 euros and 10,000 dinars from the bus stop near the Arena.
