Mass shooting in Slovakia
The 2010 Bratislava shooting, or the Devínska Nová Ves shooting, occurred on 30 August 2010, when seven people were killed and 17 others injured by a lone gunman who opened fire in Devínska Nová Ves district in a suburb of the Slovak capital, Bratislava. The gunman then committed suicide. The shooting spree took place both inside a local panel building and later in the street outside.
It was the second-deadliest attack in the modern history of Slovakia. This was also the first time in Slovak history that a mass murderer went on a shooting spree. According to Police President Jaroslav Spišiak, Slovak police has to consult with other countries and find the best procedures for these cases, something that has not yet been done, as of February 2011. The shooting remains controversial not only because the killer's motive remains unknown, but also because of purposefully withholding information from the public by the authorities and what is generally perceived as a failed police action.
Background.
Devínska Nová Ves is a rather isolated district on the outskirts of Bratislava, with around 17,000in­habi­tants (as of December2021) and another 10,000people commuting to work there (mainly because of the Volkswagen factory, usually bypassing the district proper). At the time of the attack, there were mostly elderly people at home in the apartment building. On the streets, it wasn't as busy as during the morning rush, but there were still quite a few people waiting for the bus, and parents with small children out for a walk. The attack started in a panel building that houses a kindergarten on the ground floor, but since it was the summer holiday, it was empty. There are over 20police­men serving in the district.
There have been efforts to explain the attack by the tension created after the mass construction of apartment houses and a huge inflow of inhabitants during communism. While it is true that social cohesion is lower in similar environments (see for example Petržalka), no proof has ever been produced in this case.
Attack.
Targeted killings.
On 9:40 a.m., Ľubomír Harman started shooting on the third floor at Pavla Horova Street No. 1 inside apartment in Devínska Nová Ves, Bratislava, wearing a pair of blue earmuffs and equipped with a vz. 58 semi-automatic rifle, a CZ 85 Combat pistol, and a CZ 75 Compact pistol. He also had a leather bag hung over his shoulder, which contained many rounds of ammunition. Harman first entered a flat on the same floor as his, although it technically belonged to his neighbors.
After killing all five members of the family owning the flat, Harman then headed towards the exit from the building where he shot and wounded 49-year-old Jozef Pútik, a man from the same family. He then went outside of the building and encountered 79-year-old Vincent Fratrič, who was waiting by the entrance for window-changing workers. The two talked for a while, as Pútik buzzed into his family's flat, only to see that his relatives were already dead. Five to seven minutes later, Pútik ran outside of the apartment, collapsing and grabbing Fratrič's waist, begging for help. Harman suddenly leaned his rifle against Fratrič's shoulder and shot Pútik once in the head at point-blank range, killing him.
Random shootings.
Harman then ignored Fratrič, instead reloading his rifle and opening fire on other pedestrians on the street. He also hit several cars driving nearby. The first emergency phone call was made at 9:45 a.m. Harman then began walking, firing into windows and in the direction of the kindergarten school and local shopping center. He seemed to be shooting randomly as he continued injuring several people from a considerable distance. Throughout the entire attack, Harman was described as being seen repeatedly touching the barrel of his rifle, checking if it is not overheated; this is verifiable from amateur footage made by eyewitnesses.
Coincidentally, many former policemen, soldiers, and border-guards lived in the Devínska Nová Ves District. During the shooting, Harman noticed a man in a window and shot in his direction, hitting his hand. The wounded man, a former professional sniper, subsequently aimed at the perpetrator, but later decided not to intervene and was only watching the police action with binoculars. During the attack, 52-year-old Gabriela Košťálová was shot on a balcony and died in a matter of minutes.
At one time, Harman was shooting from the vicinity of a newsstand, with several people being unaware of what was actually going on. According to eyewitness, 19-year-old Dominik Kapišinský, a woman inside the stand even came out at one point to throw out the garbage while the shooting was in progress and returned to sit inside again. According to an unnamed female eyewitness cited by magazine Plus 7 Dní, "one man stepped outside of his car and walked towards the shooter asking him why he was shooting".
Police response and shootout.
At 9:47 a.m., the first police car arrived two minutes after receiving information about the shooting, with a second police car arriving after another two minutes. One of the responding policemen, 35-year-old captain Karol Vrchovský, approached Harman at a distance of 60 meters, then took cover behind a panel space at the base of a panel building, where he was hit by what is presumed to be a deflected bullet that entered though his upper lip and exited near his right ear; the gunshot wasn't fatal. The policemen then decided to encircle the shooter and wait for a tactical unit to arrive.
With the arrival of the police, Harman shifted his focus on mainly targeting police officers. Czech media routinely reported that at this time, some local inhabitants were handing out their own bulletproof vests to the engaging police officers. At 10:10 a.m., a highly awaited specialized unit (colloquially called "kukláči" in Slovak) arrived at the site from Malacky twenty-five minutes since the incident was reported. In six minutes, they successfully cornered Harman and critically wounded him with numerous gunshots, and Harman then committed suicide by a single gunshot wound to the head.
Aftermath.
Fifteen people were taken to five different hospitals in Bratislava, and two persons were being treated on the spot. Soon after the attack, the police sealed shut the whole district of Devínska Nová Ves, not letting anyone inside and checking every car leaving the district. According to eyewitnesses, after arriving at the exits, the police were just talking for a few minutes, letting people out of the district before starting the searches. Public transport was redirected around the district for an unspecified amount of time.
Perpetrator.
The shooter was identified as 48-year-old Ľubomír Harman, who lived on the same floor of the same building as the targeted victims. For over 20 years he was living in this one-room flat, seldom or never visited by anyone. He legally owned six guns including the vz. 58. He owned the rifle legally for sporting purposes.
The Slovak police corps president said that Harman was not personally acquainted with any of his victims.
Together, 16 bullets were fired at Harman by the police, with the sixteenth bullet wounding him fatally. The final shot came from a special ops member, while three other policemen tried to shoot Harman unsuccessfully before. According to autopsy results, Ľubomír Harman was fatally hit into the left side of the chest and afterwards he shot himself.
Initial reports informed that the shooter was an intoxicated boy, approximately fifteen years old. Later that day, a single picture taken from one of the balconies above the street by a witness named Matej became available to the media. In this iconic picture, Harman is seen standing on the street, holding his rifle and looking up at the balconies.
Early life.
Harman attended a forestry high school in Liptovský Hrádok. According to his former schoolmate Pavol Časnocha who took karate lessons with him at the time, Harman was "a little quiet, I don't want to say withdrawn, maybe a loner". Another former classmate, Peter Žihľavník, remembered him as being an average student without any notable abilities. According to him "(Harman) was not withdrawn and didn't have any kind of phobia, he was a normal boy". They also sometimes played football together.
Harman went through the compulsory military service in the early 1980s, but he was never a professional soldier and he had no criminal record.
Adult life.
Ľubomír Harman spent a lot of his time in nature. After finishing high school and military service, he was employed in Wood Industry Bratislava as an "energetician in the technical division". He stayed there for four years. According to an unnamed long-time friend, people liked him there at the time as he would sometimes go beer drinking with his colleagues.
Harman used to be a hunter, which according to some is how his relationship with firearms began. On 10January 1998 Harman became the member of "Club of Reserve Soldiers 008 Fox" in Bratislava, where he often practiced shooting and participated in shooting competitions. He was often seen practicing at a shooting range in Stupava near Bratislava.
During the 1990s Harman worked for four different companies in which he was remembered as always fulfilling his duties the way it was expected. In a company, where he was employed as a boilerman, a female colleague remembers that people used to call him "silent face". "He worked and worked and worked, he listened, but did not talk", she recalls. He is remembered as always frowning but never slacking, helping everyone anytime, described even as an "ideal employee". He worked mainly in maintenance in different heater rooms around Bratislava. He quit his last job suddenly two years ago, being unemployed since 1 August 2008, despite being persuaded by his employer to stay. Since 2008 he was unemployed, he was receiving €118 welfare a month. This would later affect his presence at competitions and in practice because of lack of money. In 2010 before the murders he entered only one shooting competition.
Relationships.
Harman never got married and lived a solitary life. According to an unnamed long-time friend, Harman was lately more withdrawn than ever in his life before. He was keen on his parents, brother and sister and he had a good relationships with them. All of them were still alive at the time of the murders.
According to his friend from the shooting club, Daniel Líška, Harman neither showed any aggressive nor hostile behaviour. He has never mentioned any conflicts with his neighbours. He did not communicate with any of his neighbours and they could not recall having any conflicts with him either. According to his neighbours he was hard to notice and he never greeted anyone.
According to Harman's ex-colleague who appeared anonymously on camera in TV Markíza on 2 September 2010, Harman was a "good soul" and he got exploited easily.
Victims.
The police found five bodies inside the flat, all of them members of the Putík family. Although initial reports claimed that the family was of Roma ethnicity, it was later confirmed to be false; some of the partners of the female victims were Roma (with one of them being among those slain), while the family itself was Slavic. The last victim, Ms. Košťálová, was later found by her relatives on the balcony of a different apartment; she was revealed to not be related to the other victims and was shot when she looked down from her balcony.
Five years prior to the shooting, Slovak television station Markíza made a report about the family of the victims. The report was instigated by the neighbors of the family. According to the report, all other inhabitants of the block of flats signed a letter inviting the reporters. At the time the report was made, only two of the victims were living in the flat, while the others moved in later. In the report, the reporter starts by saying that "in a block of flats, where tens of families live near each other, one bad neighbour may be a real catastrophe". He continues by claiming that the inhabitants had even faced death threats from said family, and therefore nobody was willing to talk directly to the camera. Later, it was revealed that the family had not paid rent and therefore is facing eviction; however, due to the laws in Slovakia, which favour tenants, the process may take very long. The family denied all allegations. Also according to the report, the police were called a number of times to solve the situation, but no progress was made.
Of the fifteen people taken to the hospitals, eight required