Bio

Tomislav Petrović was 45 years old in 2008. Before the war, he worked as an electrician in a mine. In later years, he lived and worked as an electrician in Croatia and sometimes returned to his native village.

He had two children. During 1992 and 1993 he was a member of the Army of the Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina in the reserve police. During the war he was in Croatia.

People in his neighborhood knew he was prone to incidents and had mental problems. He had been treated in a mental hospital before 2008. He was licensed to own a pistol.

He suspected his wife of adultery and quarreled with her. He also accused his wife's sister of quarrel-related matters.

Murder Story

On 29 May 2008, in Trstje and Lipnica Gornja, Tuzla Canton, Tomislav Petrović shot and killed six relatives and neighbors and wounded another. He was 45 years old at the time.

The day before the shooting, his wife called her sister and complained about threats from him. She said he called her a whore and beat her. She asked her sister to call the police. The sister called an ambulance instead and said he had been treated in a mental hospital before. The ambulance advised calling the police, which did not happen. On the eve of the shooting, Petrović threatened his wife over the phone. Half an hour before the shooting, the couple quarreled and his wife ran away and hid in relatives’ house.

At about 6 a.m. on 29 May 2008, Petrović began firing from a pistol at a bus stop in Trstje. He fired at the bus from outside, then got into it and kept shooting. In the bus he killed three passengers and wounded the driver in the chest and arm. After leaving the bus, he walked to a nearby house and killed one person. He then killed two more people on the doorstep of that house. He then got into a car and followed locals who were taking the injured driver to the hospital. He rammed them with his car, but they escaped. He went to Gornja Lipnica, tried to set fire to his cousin’s car, and shot at parked cars. Police arrested him after he ran out of ammunition. The shooting lasted 25 minutes.

Petrović had been a member of the Army of the Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina and in the reserve police in 1992 and 1993. He had been treated in a mental hospital before the shooting. Neighbors said he was prone to incidents and had mental problems. He had worked as an electrician before the war and later lived and worked in Croatia. He had two children and suspected his wife of adultery. He had said he would like to act like the protagonist in a Schwarzenegger film. Although he was mentally ill, he was licensed to own a pistol. He was initially sentenced to 40 years in prison. That sentence was later overturned. He was recognized as a paranoid schizophrenic and sent to a mental hospital for treatment.