A Bosnian ex-soldier who police say killed six people in a village shooting spree tried to commit suicide after his arrest, a prosecutor said Friday, according to dpa. Tomislav Petrovic, 45, is accused of killing three neighbours and three other people on a bus Thursday in the village of Donja Lipnica near Tuzla, in what is believed to be the deadliest such shooting since Bosnia's 1992-95 war. The suspect fired at least 15 bullets from a 7.62-millimetre Yugoslav-made pistol he had owned legally for eight years, Tuzla cantonal prosecutor Damir Alic told reporters. Petrovic tried to kill himself with a broken water glass at the police station, but guards restrained him, Alic said. He was confined to a psychiatric hospital under police guard. Family problems and "acute psychosis" may have caused the shooter to snap and go on a killing spree, Alic said. But some neighbours said Petrovic suffered from post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) linked to the war, and the head of a Tuzla association of war veterans suffering from PTSD said he knew about Petrovic's case. In a revised reconstruction of the crime, Alic said Petrovic first shot through the closed bus door at the driver, who was seriously wounded. Then he killed the only passengers, a married couple and another woman. It is believed that Petrovic then went after his wife Mara, but she had fled their house when the bus shooting started. Instead, the gunman broke into a neighbour's house, killing him in the bathroom, then fatally shot a couple in another home. Petrovic's wife and two daughters were moved to a safe location owing to fears of possible retaliation of the victims' families, Alic said. Owing to the same fears, police planned to secure Saturday's funerals of the six victims.
