There have been many speculations about the gunman who launched an attack on the quiet city district of Devinska Nova Ves, shooting 7 dead and injuring 15 on Monday, 30 August, and it has set off a lot of talk in the country about his motives and about what to do to prevent similar incident in future.
Police chief Jaroslav Spisiak is convinced that the man was on a mission to take out as many people as he could and possibly try to shoot his way out of the situation.
Spisiak reiterated this belief today, 2 September, saying the theory was backed up by the shear volume of ammunition the killer, Lubomir Harman, had on his possession. He had eight full magazines for his automatic rifle and five spare magazines for his two pistols. Spisiak noted that “the ammunition wasn’t definitely not intended solely for the people in the flat”.
The police chief doesn’t think there were any special preparations made for the attack, simply because he owned six legal weapons for years and never did anything. Spisiak went on to say how the motive for the attack could not be determined, as it was born in his head at some point, and that is where the idea stayed.
The police chief felt it important to point out that none of the bullets fired by the police had hit any civilians, which he said could easily have happened in all the confusion. In total one police officer fired his gun just once, another fired six times, and a third eight times. The final shot, which the police say hit the killer on left side of his chest and would have been fatal, was fire by a sniper from the the special unit of the police. The man still managed after this shot to make sure by shooting himself. He praised the professionalism of the police for dealing with the situation so well under constant fire.
Spisiak also said that according to statements of people in the vicinity, the Roma family that suffered the worst of the attack, having lost 6 family members, were not regarded as particularly problematic and most people referred to them as decent, even though some of them had been charged before for breach of the peace. He then stated that they were definitely not some kind of criminals, and that nobody had the right to take their lives.