Five of the fatalities were members of a Roma family who
lived in an apartment where the man began his attack with a machine gun and two
pistols, said Interior Minister Dusan Lipsic. Roma, also known as Gypsies,
often face discrimination in eastern Europe, but Lipsic and police chief
Jaroslav Spisiak said the unidentified gunman's motive was not known.
Another man shot and killed outside the building was “probably”
also a member of the same family, Lipsic said.
“So far we don't know the motive ... so I will not speculate
whether it did or did not have (a) racial motive,” he told The Associated Press
at a news conference. “I doubt it, but of course the investigation is ongoing.”
The shooting took place at midmorning in the rundown Devinska Nova Ves
neighborhood on the outskirts of the Slovak capital that is surrounded by
fields and industrial areas.
The five Roma who died in the apartment - four women and a
man - lived in a brown high-rise building, Spisiak said.
Police rushed to the scene as the attacker, about 50 years
old, was leaving the building, and he fired indiscriminately at people in the
area, wounding 15, including a policeman and a 3-year-old boy who was shot in
the ear, Lipsic said.
The seventh fatality was a woman who was shot in the area as
she walked to the balcony of her apartment when she heard the gunfire, Lipsic
said.
Daniel Zitnan of Bratislava's Children's Hospital said the
3-year-old boy was only slightly hurt and released. During the attack, he was
in a car that was hit by bullets, Zitnan said.
Renata Vandriakova, who heads the emergency room of one
Bratislava hospitals and oversees the city's response to health emergencies,
said one of the 15 wounded had to be operated on and was in critical condition.
Emergency crews blocked off the scene of the attack, which
also includes a kindergarten and a supermarket.
Hours after the attack, stunned residents milled about in
disbelief.
“I'm shocked,” said 20-year-old Andre Smahovski, a student
whose friend was injured in the attack. “Normally this doesn't happen here.”
Christian Padour, 40, described how his sister-in-law was at a doctor's office
when a woman who had been shot by the gunman entered - to the horror of those
present.
“I feel safe here, but now it looks like the Wild West,”
Padour said.