Body found in barrel after Belgrade restaurant shooting, police chief arrested

The discovery of a man’s body stuffed in a barrel has turned a restaurant shooting in Belgrade into a test of Serbia’s rule of law, after the case led to the arrest of Belgrade police chief Veselin Milić and pulled officers, prosecutors and the army into an expanding investigation.

Prosecutors said the dead man was Aleksandar Nešović, known as “Baja,” who was last seen on May 12, 2026, at a restaurant in Belgrade’s Senjak neighborhood. They said the alleged killing happened overnight between May 12 and 13, and that the body was found on May 21 in a barrel buried in Inđija, about 25 miles northwest of Belgrade. The body was scheduled to undergo autopsy and DNA analysis.

The investigation widened quickly after Milić was arrested on May 15 and detained for 48 hours on suspicion of failing to report a crime and its perpetrator, as well as assisting an offender after a crime. Serbia’s Interior Ministry said he was no longer head of the Belgrade police, a significant move in a country where confidence in policing has often been strained by allegations of political influence and corruption. Prosecutors said the case involved 10 people in total.

Two suspects, identified only by initials, were arrested earlier on suspicion of attempted aggravated murder, illegal weapons possession and causing general danger. The restaurant owner and at least three police officers were also detained. That scope has given the case added weight far beyond a single killing, raising questions about whether violent crime reached into the security apparatus charged with preventing it.

Investigators found shell casings and traces of blood at the restaurant, then later located a suspected getaway vehicle containing surgical gloves, bottles of hydrochloric acid and another car hood that officials believed bore blood traces. The Serbian Armed Forces joined the search as police, the Special Antiterrorist Unit, the Gendarmerie and the Criminal Police Directorate worked to locate the body. Authorities said all resources were focused on the search.

President Aleksandar Vučić said he was 99.9 percent certain the body was Nešović’s based on the clothing and promised to deal with corrupt police officers. His response underscored the political stakes of the case: not just whether a killing was concealed, but whether parts of the state were used to shield those responsible.