The police intervention against gunman Ľubomír Harman, who one year ago committed a massacre in the Bratislava borough of Devínska Nová Ves, killing eight (including himself) and injuring 15, was better than that performed by Norway's police against mass-murderer Anders Behring Breivik, Interior Minister Daniel Lipšic (Christian-Democratic Movement (KDH) said during a visit to the borough on Tuesday, August 30.
"Comparing the situation in Slovakia and Norway, the intervention here was more professional, better and quicker," Lipšic said, as quoted by the TASR newswire. According to the minister, ordinary police patrols from the local police station surrounded Harman within a few minutes, preventing him from approaching a nearby kindergarten and shopping centre. "The police action in Devínska Nová Ves, maybe with a dose of luck, was extraordinarily good," said Lipšic.
Harman, a 48-year-old unemployed sport-shooting enthusiast, began his killing spree with an automatic .58 rifle at the flat of one of his neighbours, killing four women and one 12-year-old boy. He then killed another man at the entrance to the apartment building, before beginning to shoot at bystanders. One woman was shot dead after merely walking out onto the balcony of her flat. A member of the police SWAT team that then arrived on the scene wounded Harman with a gunshot and shortly afterwards Harman shot himself. According to the police investigation, Harman was at the time under the influence of alcohol and had inhaled acetone, which he had apparently been sniffing before the spree.
Source: TASR
For more information on this event, please see our story from the time: Shooting massacre shakes Slovakia.
Compiled by Zuzana Vilikovská from press reports
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