Murder of Dušan Jovanović
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Dušan Jovanović (Serbian Cyrillic: Душан Јовановић) was a 13-year-old ethnic Romani boy from Belgrade, FR Yugoslavia, who was murdered on 18 October 1997 by two 17-year-old skinheads. He was beaten to death on Beogradska Street in downtown Belgrade while walking to a grocery store. The murder was motivated solely by his Romani origin.
Dušan Jovanović was born to a Romani family on 1 August 1983, in Belgrade, where he lived with his parents, Milica and Aleksandar, and his sister, Duška. He attended the Vladislav Ribnikar Elementary School and was remembered as a quiet, gentle boy with a love for music and drawing, signing his works as "Dux."[1] Dušan was excited to become an uncle as his sister was pregnant in 1997 and hoped the baby would be named Kristina if it were a girl.
According to the family, on the day of his murder, Dušan had spent time with his grandfather in Mirijevo, fishing and playing basketball. Upon returning home, at around nine o'clock in the evening, he asked for permission to go to a nearby store to buy Coca-Cola to accompany a planned evening of watching wrestling on television. He feared encounters with local skinheads, who were known to gather near his home.[2]
Murder
On October 18, 1997, Jovanović encountered a group of skinheads near the store. They initially demanded money, then attacked him, knocking him to the ground, kicking him, and striking him with a piece of guttering until his neck was broken. Passersby did not intervene. Four skinheads reportedly then fled in the direction of Slavija Square. Jovanović's body was found by two girls who alerted the police. His father, concerned when Dušan did not return home, discovered his lifeless body shortly thereafter.[2]