A bodybuilder linked to a violent drug cartel murdered a woman said to be his estranged wife live on Instagram in northeastern Bosnia on Friday before killing two others.
Nermin Sulejmanović killed himself hours later after the murders when he was surrounded by police, Bosnian officials said.
Videos by VICE
Sulejmanović, a bodybuilding and fitness instructor linked to a notorious Bosnian drug cartel operating out of the northern city of Tuzla, was described in local media as a frequent target for police investigations with multiple arrests and convictions for violence and drug dealing before Friday’s brutal murders.
In the video, which has been removed by Instagram and viewed by VICE News, Sulejmanović picks up a pistol and addresses the camera.
“Hey guys, you’re going to see something you’ve never seen before – a live murder. It’s a massacre,” he said according to multiple translations in local Bosnian media.
The video then pans across a blood-soaked patio of a home to a badly injured woman sitting on a bench as a small child cries in the background. Sulejmanović, who says the woman is his wife, demands to know why she gave information to the police about him.
Barely able to speak because of grievous injuries to her face and head from what appeared to be a brutal pre-video beating, the woman – who police identified as Nevzeta Hećimović – said, with great difficulty, she feared for her life and the life of her child.
He then shoots the woman a single time in the head.
Sulejmanović then pans the camera to a toddler lying on the floor crying.
“Here, someone come and save the child. Moving on,” he said before leaving the house.
Shortly after fleeing the scene, Sulejmanović killed two other people.
“In Gradačac, a male person used a firearm, during which, according to initial information, several people were injured. The person is being intensively searched for. The cantonal prosecutor has been informed about the incident. Police officers are on the spot and are taking the necessary measures and actions. the teams of the police unit for special support were sent to the field,” the local authorities Tuzla County MUP announced before the suspect was cornered.
Officials said that Sulejmanović had killed a total of three people – the woman in the video along with two other men, believed to be a father and son identified as Džengiz Onder and Džengiz Denis. He is also believed to have wounded three others, including a police officer, before police and Bosnian special forces units cornered him. After a brief standoff with police, Sulejmanović killed himself.
Bosnian media reported that Sulejmanović had been arrested multiple times for large-scale drug trafficking as well as multiple arrests for assault or use of a weapon and had served at least two years in prison.
“(These) are not my first murders. I don’t talk much,” he said in a second short video Bosnian media reported was made shortly before he was trapped by police.
More than 60 women in Bosnia, which has a population of 3.2 million, have been reported murdered by domestic partners in the last seven years, according to the Balkan Investigative Network, with eight murders in 2022.
The killings comes amid widespread criticism that Bosnian law does too little to enforce domestic violence laws.
Instagram’s parent company Meta has been contacted for comment.
