Neighbour 'shocked' by reports identifying suspect in assassination attempt on Slovak prime minister

(17 May 2024)
RESTRICTION SUMMARY:
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Levice, Slovakia - 16 May 2024
1. Sign of Levice town
2. Tilt down from the building where the suspect in Robert Fico’s shooting lived, to police car
3. Wide of police officers leaving the building
4. Various of police cars
5. Wide of the building where the suspect lived
6. Wide of neighbour of the suspect, Ludovit Mile (68) retired cooperative worker
7. Mid of security camera sign
8. SOUNDBITE (Hungarian) Ludovit Mile (68) retired cooperative worker, neighbour of the suspect:
"I am shocked to hear such a thing after 40 years of being good neighbours. What happened to this man?”
9. Pan of the building where the suspect lived
10. Mid of police car
11. SOUNDBITE (Hungarian) Ludovit Mile (68) retired cooperative worker, neighbour of the suspect:
“We always talked normally, like people would in the pub."
12. Pan of the building where the suspect lived
13. Wide of the building
14. Pan to a Russian flag flying on one of the balconies of the building
15. SOUNDBITE (Hungarian) Ludovit Mile (68) retired cooperative worker, neighbour of the suspect:
"I don't know. I didn’t even know he had a gun.”
16. Wide Tekovska library building where the suspect has attended reading club meetings
17. Pan down from building to a library sign
16.SOUNDBITE (Hungarian) Ludovit Mile (68) retired cooperative worker, neighbour of the suspect:
"I'm not going to search your house, and it's nobody's business what I have in mine. Do you know whether I have a gun or I don't? I don’t have one. And I didn't know that man had a gun, just like no one else could know it. If he had it, the police should have known about it. Then why didn't they keep their eyes on him more? Nobody did that.”
17. Wide of neighbour shutting the door
18. Wide of the building where the suspect lived
STORYLINE:
A man charged with attempting to assassinate Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico was escorted by police to his home on Friday morning, with media saying that it was part of a search for evidence.
Fico, 59, was shot multiple times on Wednesday as he was greeting supporters after a government meeting in the former coal mining town of Handlova.
Officials at first reported that doctors were fighting for his life, but after a five-hour operation described his situation as serious but stable.
Unconfirmed media reports suggested the suspect was a 71-year-old retiree who was known as an amateur poet, and may have previously worked as a security guard at a mall in the country’s southwest.
Ludovit Mile, a 68-year-old retired cooperative worker and neighbour of the suspect, told The Associated Press he was shocked to hear the news "after forty years of being good neighbours."
"What happened to this man?” Mile wondered.
He said both men talked regularly but he wasn't aware he had a gun.
"If he had it, the police should have known about it. Then why didn't they keep their eyes on him more? Nobody did that," Mile added.
Slovak media reported that police had seized a computer and some documents from the suspect's house in the southwest city of Levice on Friday.
Police did not comment due to a ban by prosecutors on publicizing the suspect's identity and other details about the case.
Government authorities on Thursday described the suspect as a “lone wolf” who did not belong to any political groups, though he said the attack itself was politically motivated.
Fico has long been a divisive figure in Slovakia and beyond.
AP video shot by Bela Szandelszky
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