On Friday, a Bosnian bodybuilder broadcast live on Instagram the gruesome murder of his ex-wife before embarking on a shooting rampage that ended in his death.
At least three videos were recorded by Nermin Sulejmanovic, 35, who went on a killing rampage in the northeastern town of Gradacac, resulting in the deaths of three innocent persons and the injuries of three more.
On Friday morning, horror began when Sulejmanovic posted a video to Instagram promising his followers a live execution.
According to Telegraf, a local news site, he then turns the camera on his ex-wife, whose face is covered in blood and other visible bruises.
“Look, when you’re dealing with a wh–e who reports you to the police,” he tells his viewers in the chilling clip, as a child can be heard crying in the background.
Officials later said some 12,000 people watched the slaying live.
Sulejmanovic then tells his followers that he is the child’s father and that his ex-wife “hid” their son from him for over a week after reporting him to the police for domestic abuse.
“Here, watch the murder live now, nice and easy … Are you watching?” Sulejmanovic says to the camera before callously firing a bullet into a woman’s forehead.
He then turns the camera to record the child lying on the floor: “Here, someone come and save the child. Moving on.”
While being chased by police, the bodybuilder and fitness teacher made at least two more live recordings on the social media app, in which he claims to have killed two more people.
They were eventually revealed to be a father and his small son.
During his time on the run in Gradacac, Sulejmanovic also injured a police officer, another male, and a lady in separate incidents.
“I have no words to describe what happened today in Gradacac,” said Nermin Niksic, the prime minister of the Bosnian Federation.
“The murderer took his own life in the end, but no one can bring back the lives of the victims.”
Sulejmanovic committed suicide “after being located and before being apprehended,” police in the city of Tuzla said in a statement.
Authorities did not immediately reveal a motive for the shocking crime but said Sulejmanovic’s ex-wife, who has not been identified, had reported him for threats and violence in the past.
The father had been arrested before for drug smuggling and assaulting a police officer, so he also had a criminal record.
When Sulejmanovic was arrested in 2013 for selling marijuana and heroin, local media reported that he was a member of a narcotics gang.
Ingrid Macdonald, the UN’s resident coordinator in Bosnia, has spoken out against the prevalence of violence against women there and has urged for “immediate collective action” to prevent more acts of violence.
One of the latest in a string of femicide and serious episodes of gender-based violence in Bosnia and Herzegovina was livestreamed via a social network, and the United Nations is outraged by this, she added.
We demand that the authorities make a firm commitment to ending this crime once and for all, and we call on the international community, governments, civil society, and individuals to work together to make the elimination of femicide a top priority.
Meanwhile, authorities have warned that any of Sulejmanovic’s social media followers who posted words of support on Friday could face legal penalties.
