Montenegro authorities are considering a total ban on gun ownership in the aftermath of a cafe shooting that left at least 12 dead, including two children, in the city of Cetinje Wednesday. A crime scene investigator carries a rifle as evidence believed to belong to the perpetrator of the mass shooting. Photo by Boris Pejovic/EPA-EFE

“Weapons can’t be in the streets and in the hands of those who could hurt others. I will ask our security heads to offer concrete solutions for the safety of our citizens as early as tomorrow,” Spajić said.

According to police, the killer was 45-year-old Aco Martinović. The public prosecutor said Martinović committed suicide when police surrounded him after an hours-long manhunt.

Martinović had been drinking heavily all day when he got into an altercation at a restaurant when he went home and got a gun, returning to kill several people, according to Montenegro authorities.

The restaurant owner and his children, 10 and 13, were among the dead.

He then went to several other locations, shooting members of his family and other people.

Police Commissioner Lazar Šćepanović said the gunman killed four people at the bar before shooting other people at three more locations.

Montenegro President Jakov Milatovic said on X, “Instead of festive joy, sadness over the loss of innocent lives hung over our capital and all of Montenegro. I am shocked and shaken by this tragedy.”

Local police said it was an isolated mass shooting and was not caused by a “war between organized criminal groups.”

Montenegro declared three days of national mourning beginning Thursday.

In 2005 the gunman got a suspended sentence for violent behavior and appealed a conviction for illegal gun possession.