Belgrade school shooting

On the morning of 3 May 2023, a school shooting occurred at Vladislav Ribnikar Model Elementary School in the Vračar municipality of Belgrade, Serbia. According to the Ministry of Internal Affairs, the shooter — identified as 13-year-old seventh-grade student Kosta Kecmanović — entered the school around 08:40 CEST, pulled a gun from his backpack, and shot and killed the school security guard, then two hall monitors in the hallway. He reloaded while heading to his classroom, shot the history teacher, and fired at numerous other people. In total, nine students (eight girls and one boy) and the security guard were killed; six others — five students and the teacher — were wounded. One wounded student, Angelina Aćimović, later died of her injuries on 15 May, becoming the tenth fatality. He then went to the courtyard and contacted police at 08:42. He used two pistols legally owned by his father, a 9mm CZ-75 Shadow 2 and a .22 LR Ruger MK III Standard, and reportedly fired 66 shots.

Kecmanović surrendered to police and was taken into custody, but because Serbian law sets the minimum age of criminal responsibility at 14, he could not face criminal or misdemeanour charges; the case was referred to the Centre for Social Work, and he was placed under the care of a psychiatric hospital in Belgrade, the Child and Adolescent Neurology and Psychiatry Clinic. The Ministry of Internal Affairs said he had planned the attack for about a month, selecting classrooms and compiling a list of students to target, and had received shooting-range training alongside his father.

Legal action was initiated against his parents. His father, Vladimir Kecmanović, a radiologist, was investigated and later charged over acts against public safety for improperly securing the firearms and taking his son to a shooting range; his mother, Miljana Kecmanović, an assistant professor of microbiology, was charged with criminal possession of a weapon. Both parents were also charged with child neglect. Their criminal trial began on 29 January 2024, and on 30 December they were convicted for failing to secure the firearm used in the shooting; the father was sentenced to 14.5 years' imprisonment and the mother to three years. A gun instructor who had taught Kosta to shoot, Nemanja Marinković, received one year and three months in prison. The parents and Kecmanović himself were also found liable in five separate civil lawsuits brought by victims' families, with damages ordered ranging from roughly 58,800 to 111,000 euros per claimant.

The shooting occurred one day before a separate mass shooting elsewhere in Serbia, and both attacks triggered large protests, including a "Serbia Against Violence" demonstration on 8 May attended by tens of thousands of people in Belgrade and other cities. The government announced new gun-control measures, an amnesty for surrendering illegal weapons, a Peer Violence Prevention Council, and other measures. Education Minister Branko Ružić resigned following criticism of remarks he made about video games and Western values. The school later reopened, and a memorial planting of ten cedar trees was held in front of the school.