Zoran Gole was frying fish and French fries for the children near the street in front of his gate while they were burning a Yule log across the street. He crossed the street when four men in a car passed by, got out, and one hit him with an axe in the chest while the other stabbed him with a knife. They injured both of his lungs and his heart aorta.
This is what a friend of Zoran Gole (44) told „Novosti“, who was killed on Christmas Eve in front of his house in Indjija. Stojan Divić (35), Aleksandar Slepčević (35), Đorđe Bosnić (28), all from Indjija, and Miloš Š. Kostić (40) from Sremski Karlovci were arrested for this crime, as well as for attacking two other men about a mile and a half before Gole’s house, who were also burning a Yule log.
Gole’s friend is in shock, crying in front of Zoran’s house, waiting for the family of the deceased to come from Novi Sad, where they were at the Clinical Centre to where Zoran Gole was taken after the attack. The injuries inflicted by the attackers were so severe that he couldn’t survive.
„He was a strong man. Even with a severed aorta, he fought for hours, but they couldn’t save him, he passed away in the hospital“, said the friend.
In Indjija, it is a tradition to burn Yule logs on Christmas Eve in courtyards of churches and streets in front of houses, so that evening many bonfires were burning in many courtyards, and neighbors and mostly young people were gathering around them.
A neighbor from across the street, Milorad Lužajić, tells us that he gave Zoran a grill so that he could fry potatoes and fish for his son and his friends by the street.
„I went to bed early and didn’t see what happened, but they told me that there were at least ten of them at the Yule log burning“, said Lužajić. „Zoran was walking across the street, about four steps wide, towards the grill, when those men in the car passed by. They got out and said to him, ‘What are you crossing, my brakes aren’t working,’ and attacked him immediately. One hit him in the chest with an axe, the other with a knife.“
A neighbor tells us that he heard that one of the attackers was a man known as „Crni“ (Black) and they say he is the biggest problem in Indjija, and he was released from prison two months ago.
„They told me Zoran fell, and that ‘Black’ pulled out a gun to shoot him to ensure he was dead, but at that moment Zoran’s son David reacted. He spread the coals with his pitchfork and when they attacked his father, he hit the man with a gun with the pitchfork, and they got into the car and left“, said Milorad Lužajić, mentioning that Zoran Gole was one of the best and most valuable neighbors.
Zoran’s godfather shakes his head in front of the house, unable to believe that his godson is no longer alive and that he died for no reason.
„They came by car, took out axes and knives, and attacked the man innocently, in front of his house. If they came to wish Merry Christmas, they could have sat there until morning and socialized, no one would have looked at them badly. It was a hospitable home, terrible“, the godfather said.
According to residents in that part of the outskirts of Indjija, the four arrested men attacked some other young men who were burning Yule logs before Zoran. About a mile and a half from Gole’s house on Đorđa Vojinović Street, across from the church and diagonally from the cemetery, they injured two young men and entered the yard of the Dukić family.
„My grandson was burning a Yule log with five or six friends when they attacked them. Later, we heard that they provoked some others down the street, who were around the bonfires,“ said a man who lives there. „I was lying down when I heard commotion and yelling. I went out, and they entered my yard, attacked me and my daughter. I yelled ‘Get out of my yard’ and started pushing them out, but they said ‘we won’t leave you’. One guy had a hammer, probably a kilogram heavy, and the other had a knife. Somehow I pushed them out, and they said ‘don’t call the police’. Later, I saw that they hit one guy in the head with the hammer, and the other was cut with a knife on the neck. My daughter took him to the health center. When they attacked, the kids scattered.“
Zoran Gole moved to Indjija as a young man from Kosovo after 1999. He bought an old house, renovated it, started a family, worked at a gas station for a while, and drove a truck in the last six years. He leaves behind a wife, son, and daughter.
„Zoran was as good as bread. He wanted to help everyone in need. He never refused anyone who asked him for something. A true man. Strong, tough, but kind-hearted. He was also a hunter“, said his friend, who we met in Indjija, and with whom he worked at the gas station.
For one of the arrested men, Miloš Š. Kostić, the media write that he is the leader of the Partizan football club’s fan group „Zabranjeni“ (forbidden). They say he is the brother of Alen Kostić, who was killed in 2016 in front of his house in Belgrade, who was the group’s leader at that time. After his death, Miloš allegedly took over the leadership of the „Zabranjeni“.
