On a bright spring day in May 2023, Serbia was shaken by an unprecedented act of violence that shattered the country’s longstanding reality of rare mass gun violence and nonexistent school shootings. A 13-year-old boy entered Belgrade’s Vladislav Ribnikar Elementary School, carried two handguns stolen from his father’s locked safe, and opened fire. Over the course of just two minutes and one second, he fired 66 bullets, leaving nine children and one security guard dead, with six more people injured. A tenth victim later succumbed to her wounds in hospital, making the attack one of the deadliest peacetime tragedies in Serbia’s modern history.
Because the shooter was below the age of criminal responsibility under Serbian law, he could not face prosecution, and was instead ordered into long-term psychiatric care. But the legal system turned its focus to his parents, Vladimir and Miljana Kecmanović, who were charged with neglect and abuse of a minor. Vladimir faced an additional charge of a serious offense against public safety, stemming from his failure to secure his firearms and his role in teaching his underage son to handle guns.
The first trial against the couple concluded in 2024. Vladimir was handed a lengthy prison sentence, while Miljana was acquitted of illegal firearms possession but convicted on neglect charges. A shooting range instructor who had allowed the boy to practice was also found guilty of providing false testimony. However, in November 2025, Belgrade’s appellate court threw out the original convictions, ordering a full retrial on the grounds that the initial verdict contained unclear and contradictory reasoning. Vladimir remained in custody throughout the waiting period, while Miljana was granted release ahead of the new trial.
The retrial got underway in January 2026. In a verdict issued Thursday, the Belgrade court handed down new sentences: Vladimir Kecmanović will serve 14 years and six months in prison, while Miljana Kecmanović received a prison term of two years and 11 months for child neglect.
Both the prosecution and defense teams have already filed appeals against the new sentences, kicking off another round of legal proceedings. Zora Dobričanin, a lawyer representing the families of the victims, described the legal process as a “long fight” that would continue through the appeal process. Defense attorneys argued that the guilty verdict on neglect charges repeated the flaws of the overturned initial ruling, claiming prosecutors failed to prove the charges and presented no expert evidence confirming the boy suffered from neglect.
The 2023 school shooting triggered an unprecedented wave of public reckoning across Serbia. Just two days after the Belgrade school attack, a separate mass shooting in a drive-by attack near the capital left nine more people dead. Tens of thousands of Serbian citizens took to the streets in mass protests, demanding stronger gun control and government action to address the root causes of the violence. In response, the Serbian government implemented a national gun amnesty program and passed stricter firearms regulations to prevent similar tragedies in the future.
Speaking ahead of the verdict, the chief prosecutor emphasized that securing convictions for the parents would be a critical step toward answering unresolved questions about how Serbian society responded to the 2023 tragedy.