Ľubomír Harman

Ľubomír Harman (31 March 1962 – 30 August 2010) was a Slovak mass murderer who on 30 August 2010 killed 7 gypsies, and wounded 17 more in a densely populated suburb of the Slovak capital Bratislava, before committing suicide after receiving what would have been a fatal wound from the police. After murdering a family of 5 inside a neighbour's flat in a local apartment building, he killed another man from the same family outside the building, proceeding to shoot in a busy street and also targeting people standing on their balconies, killing another woman.

Early life

Ľubomír Harman attended a forestry high school in Liptovský Hrádok. According to his former schoolmate Pavol Časnocha who took karate lessons with him at the time, Harman was "a little quiet, I don't want to say withdrawn, maybe a loner". Another former classmate, Peter Žihľavník, remembered him as being an average student without any notable abilities. According to him "(Harman) was not withdrawn and didn't have any kind of phobia, he was a normal boy". They also sometimes played football together.

Harman went through the compulsory military service in the early 1980s, but he was never a professional soldier and he had no criminal record.

Adult life

Ľubomír Harman spent a lot of his time in nature. After finishing high school and military service, he was employed in Wood Industry Bratislava as an "energetician in the technical division". He stayed there for four years. According to an unnamed long-time friend, people liked him there at the time as he would sometimes go drink some beers with his colleagues.

Harman used to be a hunter, this is – according to some – how his relationship with firearms began. On 10 January 1998^[1] Harman became the member of "Club of Reserve Soldiers 008 Fox" in Bratislava, where he often practiced shooting and participated in shooting competitions. He was often seen practicing at a shooting range in Stupava near Bratislava.

During the 1990s Harman worked for four different companies in which he was remembered as always fulfilling his duties the way it was expected. In a company, where he was employed as a boilerman, a female colleague remembers that people used to call him "silent face". "He worked and worked and worked, he listened, but did not talk", she recalls. He is remembered as always frowning but never slacking, helping everyone anytime, described even as an "ideal employee". He worked mainly in maintenance in different heater rooms around Bratislava. He quit his last job suddenly two years ago, being unemployed since 1 August 2008, despite being persuaded by his employer to stay. Since 2008 he was unemployed,^[2] he was receiving €118 welfare a month.^[3] This would later affect his presence at competitions and in practice because of lack of money. In 2010 before the murders he entered only one shooting competition.

The Slovak police corps president said that Harman was in no relationship with his victims.

Relationships

Harman never got married and lived a solitary life. According to an unnamed long-time friend, Harman was lately more withdrawn than ever in his life before. He was keen on his parents, brother and sister and he had a good relationships with them. All of them were still alive at the time of the murders.

According to his friend from the shooting club, Daniel Líška, Harman neither showed any aggressive nor hostile behaviour. He has never mentioned any conflicts with his neighbours.^[4] He did not communicate with any of his neighbours and they couldn't recall having any conflicts with him either. According to his neighbours he was hard to notice and he never greeted anyone.^[5]

According to Harman's ex-colleague who appeared anonymously on camera in TV Markíza on 2 September 2010, Harman was a "good soul" and he got exploited easily.

Murders

Vz. 58 rifle used to commit the murders.

On 30 August 2010 Ľubomír Harman became the first Slovak gun-wielding mass murderer when he opened fire in Devínska Nová Ves district in a suburb of the Slovak capital, Bratislava killing 7 gypsies and injuring 17 before committing suicide. After the massacre, over 9000 bullets were found in his apartment.

References