Another mafia style shooting, involving the same target, happened at the busy East Gate mall in Skopje in a matter of two months.
The attacker shot and badly wounded underworld figure Rade Trajkovski – Shtekli and one person accompanying him. Shtekli was also shot at and injured in late August, by two gunmen who fired at his car and then fled to a no-go Albanian village west of Skopje.

The video of the attack was posted online within hours. It shows the two targets going down on an escalator when a man runs towards them and fires from above, before fleeing.

The 38 years old is reportedly part of the Baron gang from Skopje’s Cair district, which mainly includes ethnic Albanian gangsters, some of whom have fought in Syria and Iraq. Shtekli was suspected of ordering the murder of Martin Janusev, a football player who was allegedly involved in the drug scene, that was carried out in 2017 in a busy caffe in Skopje.

East Gate is one of the largest and busiest malls in Skopje, and both shooting incidents raised concerns about the safety of the citizens and the escalating drug wars in the country. The recent high profile attacks include the murder of Orhan Bajrami – Oki, a well known Albanian mafia figure, who was shot in a villa he was renting in the Greek resort town of Hanioti in July, along with a companion.

Earlier, in March, Jeton Krivanjeva – Zhila and Enes Ibraimov – Ljaci were gunned down in a busy shisha bar in Skopje’s Old Bazaar. The attackers loudlly declared to be police officers to buy a few seconds from the surprised targets, before opening fire on them from automatic rifles.