The mother of murdered psychologist: Maybe I was wrong not to report the harassment to higher authorities

After the brutal murder of psychologist Ivan Vladimirov, it turns out that many people have seen Rumen Tonev, who was arrested for the crime, pulling out a gun. It turns out that he fired it in a restaurant while he was still an employee of the Ministry of the Interior, but all this has gone unpunished over the years.

Famous Bulgarian psychologist Ivan Vladimirov-Nav was killed in dispute with neighbour (update)

Ivan Vladimirov's mother, Slava Ivanova, spoke to BNT. She blames herself for everything that happened. She says that during the years when she was subjected to harassment by the detainee Rumen Tonev, she did not file enough reports, although she does not remember the number of such reports already filed.

She also blames herself for not approaching higher institutions to seek a solution to the problem. She avoids talking about her son's death, but rather analyses the reasons why it happened.

"The loss of a child is the loss of a child, that is undeniable, but the horrific way it all happened... I am blessed that I was in the town of Ihtiman when it all happened and my brother and I came the next day at 4.00 and the neighbour's wife had washed the stairs. I wouldn't have been alive if I had seen what was on the stairs. It was scary. Sadly, we can now speculate what could have been done, who had not done their job, including us. Maybe we have some faults and the fact that I didn't report it to higher authorities. I don't know, I just can't change things anymore, whatever we think."

The Ministry of Interior said it has now ordered a probe into how all the reports that have been made over the years have been handled. They specify that there have been 10 applications submitted to them in the recent years - Rumen Tonev had filed reports against Slava Ivanova and Ivan Vladimirov, and Slava Ivanova had filed against Tonev. It is noteworthy that every time a report was filed against the woman, she was summoned for questioning or police officers came to her home.

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The famous psychologist, Ivan Vladimirov, was murdered on February 8 in front of his home in “Cherkovna” street in Sofia.

Former policeman Rumen Tonev, who was a neighbour of the victim, was arrested for the murder. The most likely motive for the crime was a conflict between neighbours. The man accused of killing the psychologist has refused to give explanations, "BNT learned.

But the question is - could it not have come to this? There have been many reports to the police against the suspect, and neighbours say everyone was afraid of him.

The murder happened after many years in which everyone who lives in the block of flats says that there were reports to the 5th police station in Sofia about the aggressive behaviour of the detained Rumen Tonev, but there was no effect. Tonev was in legal possession of a weapon and although he had made threats to kill and even took out his gun demonstratively, his permit was not revoked.

The Ministry of Interior's explanation is that the reports were not of violence, moreover, most of them were from the former police officer Tanev against the family of the murdered man. However, this is at odds with the evidence gathered today. Tonev was a member of the Metropolitan Traffic Police and was dismissed from the Ministry of the Interior in 2000. Tonev has now been charged with premeditated murder.

Ivan Vladimirov was killed with a single shot to the face, the Prosecutor's office said

Shortly after 10 p.m. on February 8, Ivan Vladimirov returned home to find the front door of his apartment smeared with grease. This was not the first time it happened and it was no secret that it was done by the downstairs neighbour - former policeman Rumen Tonev. There were no witnesses to the events of the following minutes. According to the investigators, most likely Ivan Vladimirov rang Rumen Tonev to ask him about this latest attack.

"My cousin was coming home from the theatre. Tonev was waiting for him at the entrance, as far as we understood. My cousin was a pacifist. He was a psychologist, he never had verbal aggression, he didn't like that kind of thing," said Nina Tomova, Ivan's cousin.

However, Rumen Tonev met his victim Ivan Vladimirov with a gun.

"He was shot, according to the evidence we have at the moment, with one shot in the face. His death occurred instantly. The corpse of the deceased was found by two neighbours who shortly before had heard a noise and smell which they described as strange," said Desislava Petrova, Sofia city deputy prosecutor.

There had been an old conflict between the man accused of the murder, Rumen Tonev, and Ivan Vladimirov's family, according to the victim's aunt and first cousin. They also claim that Tonev regularly verbally attacked Ivan's mother, Slava Ivanova.

In the autumn last year, on the occasion of another murder in Sofia after a conflict between neighbours, Ivan Vladimirov at the time told bTV in an interview about his aggressive neighbour, describing how all the neighbours from the block were afraid of Rumen Tonev. According to Vladimirov, the former policeman even physically attacked an elderly neighbour. His words are confirmed by people living in the block.

"The guy has a gun, he doesn't care at all. At one meeting of the block, a neighbour had kicked him in the chest or had punched him in the chest, I don't know. When we had called the police a while ago – nothing happened. This guy threatens and nobody takes his gun permit, is that normal? And this person had threatened half of the residents of the block, he had pulled his gun out on several occasions previously. The police at that time arrived, and knocked on his door and rang his door bell, he didn’t open to them, and the police officers stood and waited liked punished," says Dimitar Tsvetkov, Ivan's neighbour.

In the same interview on bTV, Ivan Vladimirov shares his fear that he himself could be the next victim of conflict between neighbours.

"Another case, as we know, there were complaints many, many years ago. And in fact no measures were taken in any way. People own guns legally. I don't know how it is possible and I also don't know how it is possible that there are no consequences," said Tsvetina Veselinova, a friend of Ivan.

Ministry of Interior’s Secretary General, Petar Todorov, pointed out that the reports were filed after 2020 and were not about violence.

"There have been 12 such signals filed, and the bulk of these signals are from the perpetrator about the victim's mother. The signals are not about violence, but they are about noise, dirtying of common areas and other things of that kind."

The consequences apparently come after the murder of Ivan Vladimirov. Rumen Tonev was detained in his apartment that night and, at least for now, does not deny that he committed the murder.

Ivan Vladimirov's mother announced the loss of her son with an emotional post on the social network. In it, she says her mind refuses to accept that what happened is reality.

Why there is a discrepancy between what people are saying and the facts about the alerts given by the Interior Ministry - the answer is yet to be found. Investigators' efforts at the moment are focused on gathering evidence that Rumen Tonev is the perpetrator of the murder. The Prosecutor's office will check all the reports that have been filed.

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