Serbian teenage school attacker’s father bag jail term for negligence

The father of the Serbian teenage shooter who killed 10 people in a primary school in Belgrade during a mass shooting last year has been sentenced to 14 years’ imprisonment for neglect and abuse of a minor.

In addition to the sentencing, the boy’s father, Vladimir Kecmanovic, was also sentenced for an aggravated crime against public safety.

The Serbian High Court’s ruling on Monday came a year after the boy, identified as K.K., shot dead eight students and a security guard at his school in Belgrade and wounded five other students and a teacher, before surrendering to police. 

While the parents were sentenced, K.K. who was 13 at the time of the shooting, was admitted to a psychiatric hospital for minors as he could not be tried due to his age, according to Serbian law.

Also sentenced was Nemanja Marinkovic, the instructor at a shooting range where the boy and his father went for target practice, who bagged a year and a half in jail for perjury.

In delivering the verdict, the court stated that K.K.’s parents did not provide their son with proper psychological support while the father also failed to secure his weapons in line with the law, instead keeping them where the boy could easily access them.

The court further emphasized that the parents’ negligence and failure to provide a safe environment for their son had contributed to the tragic events that unfolded and that they must be held accountable for their actions.