After Bar Fight, Bar Owner and His Kids Are Shot Dead

The violence began with a bar fight and ended with 13 people dead. Authorities have released more details on the New Year's Day mass shooting in the small Balkan country of Montenegro, noting the suspected gunman, Aleksandar Aco Martinovic, died following a search. He'd been drinking at a restaurant-bar in the town of Cetinje for most of the day before getting into an altercation with a patron around 5:30pm local time, the BBC reports, citing police. Martinovic reportedly left the establishment, only to return with a weapon he'd retrieved from his home, police said.

The shooter allegedly killed four men at the restaurant-bar, killed four others at a second site, killed two children at a third location, then killed two others at two additional locations, reports the AP. The bar owner and his two children, ages 10 and 13, were reportedly among those killed, along with members of the shooter's own family. Another four people were injured, including one listed in critical condition. Encountering Martinovic hours later, police ordered him to drop his weapon, at which point "he attempted suicide," per CNN, shooting himself in the head, Interior Minister Danilo Saranovic said, noting he died en route to a hospital.

Saranovic described the shooting as a "consequence of disturbed interpersonal relations," per the BBC. Lazar Scepanovic, head of the national police force, said the victims were "godfathers" and "friends" of the shooter, per CNN. "This is a terrible tragedy that has affected us all," Prime Minister Milojko Spajic said Wednesday, per the New York Times, adding that Montenegro's Security Council would hold an emergency meeting to discuss new firearm restrictions following Cetinje's second mass shooting in three years. The BBC reports "a complete ban on the possession of weapons" is on the table. (More mass shootings stories.)