ZAGREB, July 10, 2019 – The man, suspected of killing a social worker and wounding a legal adviser in the Đakovo social welfare centre on Tuesday morning, was arrested on Tuesday evening after an extensive police search for him, the local law enforcement authorities said.
The man, who escaped the shooting scene on a bicycle, was on the run for a few hours and the police found him near an entry to the motorway outside the eastern Croatian town of Đakovo in the evening.
Minister of Demography, the Family, Youth and Social Policy Nada Murganić, who arrived in Đakovo on Tuesday afternoon to support the local social welfare centre, described the shooting as dreadful.
The social worker Blaženka Poplašen was killed and the centre’s legal adviser, Ivan Pavić, was seriously wounded by the shooter, who is presumed to have mental illness and who has a criminal record. According to information provided by the police, the man opened fire from firearms and killed the social worker and wounded the other employee in the centre and then escaped on a bicycle.
The wounded employee was admitted to the Osijek hospital and according to the latest information he is still in a critical condition.
President Kolinda Grabar-Kitarović and Prime Minister Andrej Plenković expressed their condolences to the family of the killed social worker and condemned the shooting in the strongest terms.
The premier said on Tuesday evening that the police were conducting an investigation to establish all the circumstances of the tragic incident.
More Đakovo news can be found in the Lifestyle section.
