Makarska: Man Arrested for Pushing Red Star Fan Into Sea

On Thursday, September 17, a young man walking through Makarska in a jersey bearing the Red Star Belgrade crest ended up in the sea on the city’s waterfront after being attacked, and Croatian police arrested a suspect the same day. Although the incident took place on the Croatian coast, the story has a direct link to Serbia: the attack was triggered by the Belgrade club’s jersey, and some Serbian media report that the victim himself is Serbian, while Croatian sources do not mention his nationality.

The Split-Dalmatia Police Department said a report that a man had been pushed into the sea was received at around 10:40 a.m. Officers identified the suspect and arrested him at around 12:30 p.m. According to the circumstances established so far, he first asked the young man to take off the jersey, and when he refused, pushed him off the waterfront into the water. The young man was not injured, police confirmed, adding that they had taken statements from witnesses at the scene and were continuing the criminal investigation to establish all circumstances of the incident. Neither the identity nor the age of the suspect had been disclosed by the time this article was published.

Earlier that morning, the young man had been spotted by guests at Kostela, a popular Makarska cafe, as he walked through the city center and paid for parking while wearing a white jersey with the large Red Star Belgrade crest. According to accounts carried by local outlets, guests immediately began discussing that he could run into trouble precisely because of the jersey, with some remarking that he was, in their view, needlessly putting himself at risk. A few hours later came word that the same young man had been attacked and thrown into the sea, and police arrived at the scene quickly to take statements from those present.

An additional detail about the jersey the young man was wearing came from the outlet Dalmacija danas, citing Makarska danas: it was a Red Star Belgrade jersey printed with a quote from Serbian actor Ljuba Tadic. That detail further confirms the jersey’s owner had a personal connection to the Belgrade club, although Croatian sources still do not state his origin or age. Some media in Serbia, on the other hand, report that the victim is Serbian, a claim Croatian police have so far neither confirmed nor denied, leaving open the question of where the young man actually came from before arriving in Makarska.

After the attack, readers sent the newsroom of Pod Biokovom a photo taken on the waterfront showing a police vehicle and, according to information the outlet received, the attacked young man himself. In that photo he is no longer wearing the white jersey with the club crest but a different Red Star Belgrade jersey, this time with lettering in Cyrillic, further confirming that he was a fan wearing the club’s colors deliberately rather than by coincidence.

Police in Split-Dalmatia County said they are looking for the person linked to the incident, as stated by the Split-Dalmatia Police Department, and that the criminal investigation continues as all circumstances of the attack and the suspect’s possible motive are established. None of the Croatian media have so far reported that the case has been classified as a hate crime, nor that the suspect has been brought before an investigating judge. As of this article’s publication, it has not been reported whether a criminal complaint has been filed against the arrested man, and there is no word yet on when police might release further details about the suspect or the outcome of the investigation.