Altina Shooting: Gun Found, Guzijan Faces Prosecutor Today

Police on Monday, September 14, found the pistol used to shoot Bosnia and Herzegovina national Branko B. (46) in the Altina neighborhood. The weapon had been hidden in an abandoned building on the outskirts of Zemun, about three kilometers from the scene of the shooting. Suspect Petar Guzijan (39), known as Mali Cuner, showed investigators the location himself while giving his statement. His hearing at Belgrade’s Higher Public Prosecutor’s Office is scheduled for today.

The shooting happened on Saturday, September 12, around 5:30 p.m., outside a private house in Altina. According to the investigation, Branko B. rang the doorbell at Guzijan’s home. Guzijan claims he looked through the peephole, did not recognize the visitor, and fired as soon as he opened the door. The bullet hit Branko B. in the chest.

Only when the wounded man collapsed on the doorstep did the suspect realize he had shot someone he knew. From that point, sources differ on what happened next. Mondo reports that Guzijan called a mutual friend, S.K., who alone drove the wounded man to the hospital. Press reports that Branko B. was driven to the hospital by Guzijan and S.K. together. Branko B. underwent emergency surgery at the Zemun Clinical Hospital Center and, according to all sources, is no longer in life threatening condition, though he remains under medical supervision.

Afterward, according to the investigation, Guzijan walked roughly three kilometers to the abandoned building on the outskirts of Zemun and hid the pistol there. Only once he had gotten rid of the weapon did he call the police himself and report that an unfortunate incident had occurred. Accompanied by a lawyer, he went to a police station and surrendered to officers.

Gun With No Paper Trail Sent for Ballistic Testing

During questioning, Guzijan himself described to investigators the route he had taken and showed them the exact spot where he had hidden the weapon. Officers from the Criminal Police Directorate and the Third Department of the Belgrade Police Directorate went to the scene and recovered the pistol.

A records check found that the weapon has no registered origin or permit. It has been sent for ballistic testing, the results of which are not yet known.

Guzijan turned himself in to police, with a lawyer present, and was held for up to 48 hours by order of the prosecutor’s office. Within that window, along with the criminal complaint against him, he is being brought in for questioning at the prosecutor’s office, scheduled for today.

Witness S.K., who helped transport the wounded man, told police he backed the suspect’s account that the shooting was accidental, the result of misjudging who was at the door through the peephole. Despite this, Belgrade’s Higher Public Prosecutor’s Office has for now classified the offense as attempted murder, in conjunction with unauthorized possession of a weapon. Whether that classification holds or is changed will depend on the further course of the investigation and the forensic findings.

Guzijan Already Convicted Once, His Father Killed in 2002

Petar Guzijan is no stranger to law enforcement. The Belgrade Higher Court previously handed him a final sentence of two and a half years in prison for illegal production, possession, and trafficking of weapons.

He inherited the nickname Mali Cuner, or Little Cuner, from his father, Jovan Guzijan Cuner, one of the leading figures of Zemun’s criminal underworld in the 1990s. The elder Cuner was killed on October 5, 2002, in an ambush near the “Zmaj” gas station in Belgrade, on the orders of Dusan Spasojevic. Police records also list Petar’s brother, Marko Guzijan, alongside him.

Srpske novine previously reported on the Altina shooting and Guzijan’s arrest in the days following the incident. The recovery of the weapon and today’s questioning mark a new step in an investigation whose outcome will hinge on the ballistic testing and the prosecutor’s further assessment.