A 38-year-old man has been arrested and placed in pre-trial detention in Kosovo on suspicion of killing two people and seriously wounding another. After the incident, which sparked strong reactions in the country on Friday, authorities also seized weapons during searches of his home.
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According to the Basic Prosecution in Gjilan and Kosovo Police, the victims are suspected to be the suspect’s 27-year-old wife and her 31-year-old brother. The wounded person was the 48-year-old son of the suspect’s wife’s uncle.
The motive for the incident has not yet been made public. Authorities have said the suspect has no criminal record, while other weapons were found during raids on his properties.
The incident was reported on Friday around 14:25, when Kosovo Police received a report of gunfire in the village of Livoç i Ulët in Gjilan.
Upon arriving at the scene, police officers found the lifeless body of 31-year-old E.B. inside a vehicle.
The 27-year-old woman, N.B., was transported to the General Hospital of Gjilan, but arrived there without signs of life due to gunshot wounds.
Meanwhile, M.B., the third person involved in the incident, is receiving treatment at the University Clinical Center of Kosovo (QKUK), the Gjilan prosecution said on Friday, shortly before midnight.
Police announced that the suspect, V.R., turned himself in to authorities.
He is in pre-trial detention, while investigations are ongoing into the criminal offenses of aggravated murder and unauthorized possession of weapons.
During investigations at two locations, police seized four cartridges, 21 shell casings and five projectiles. Inside the suspect’s vehicle, a revolver was also found, which is suspected to have been used in the killing.
According to police, the revolver had an expired license.
Searches of V.R.’s homes and properties also led to the discovery of two long guns with expired licenses, one revolver without a license, one air gun, 520 cartridges of various calibers and 1,600 pellets for an air rifle.
Several mobile phones and camera DVR devices were also taken as material evidence, Kosovo Police announced.
The Basic Prosecution in Gjilan clarified that the revolver suspected of being used by the defendant in the murder was a “Beretta” type and had an expired license.
Authorities said V.R. has no criminal history and that no case of domestic violence had previously been reported against him.
Kosovo’s President, Justina Shiroka Pula, responded by saying she had received the news “with deep sorrow.” She offered “my deepest condolences to the victims’ families and a speedy recovery to the wounded person.”
“No circumstance can justify taking a human life. No one has the right to expose women to danger, violence or suffering,” Shiroka Pula said, according to a statement from the Kosovo Presidency.
The president called on judicial bodies to investigate the case “with full dedication,” clarify every circumstance and bring those responsible to justice.
This incident occurred less than a month after the arrest of a man suspected of killing his sister and wounding his mother in Prizren in September.
During August, two women were killed: a 25-year-old pregnant woman and an 80-year-old woman. In these two cases, the victims’ husbands, aged 26 and 81 respectively, are suspected.
Kosovo Assembly Speaker Albulena Haxhiu said she was “shocked by the news of the murder of a woman and a man, as well as the wounding of another person.”
“Two lives lost violently, and families who today are facing great pain,” Haxhiu wrote on Facebook.
Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Justice Donika Gërvalla described Friday as an “ominous day.”
“Yet another woman was killed by her husband. Yet another family was struck by an irreparable tragedy,” she said, according to the Ministry of Justice.
Gërvalla said preventing violence and protecting women’s lives require continuous commitment and responsibility, not just reactions after tragedies have occurred.
“The murder of women is a crime, so serious and terrible that no society can treat as unavoidable what it has an obligation to prevent,” she said.
With this case, the number of women killed this year reaches six.
According to Kosovo Police data, from 2010 to August of this year, 64 women have been killed in Kosovo.
Human rights organizations have on several occasions criticized authorities, accusing them of failing to protect women facing the risk of violence.
