Neven Stanisic, 23, was a man of faith and exemplary family values, friends and leaders at his family’s church said Tuesday.
Stanisic was the second youngest of Monday’s 10 shooting victims at the Boulder King Soopers.
A graduate of Alameda International Jr./Sr. High, Stanisic’s family came to the U.S. as refugees in the late 1990s, according to leaders at Saint John the Baptist Serbian Orthodox Church in Lakewood. Stanisic was born in the U.S.
“His family fled the war in the former Yugoslavia and everything they had was either left behind or destroyed,” said Rev. Radovan Petrovic of Saint John the Baptist. “They left everything to save their lives, and came here to have a new start.”
Stanisic was headed away from the King Soopers on Monday after a coffee-machine fix-it job inside the grocery store, Petrovic said, adding, “He ended up being in the parking lot, in his car, when the bullet struck him.”
“He was an amazing child,” said Ivana Petrovic, the reverend’s wife, who had close ties with the Stanisic family. “We’ve known the family ever since we became their spiritual father and mother here. He was a very good, shy, hardworking boy and one of those kiddos who listened to his parents the best.”
Stanisic’s Facebook page, which was last updated in 2016, showed him with high school classmates, smiling in a blue graduation gown and cap. The profile also contained images of hand-drawn anime characters and the Assassin’s Creed video game series.
Petrovic, who has four boys of her own, said she frequently pointed to Stanisic as an example for her own kids, given that “he was such a good behaving boy.” As Serbian refugees from Bosnia, the Stanisics only wanted another chance at building a life for their family, which included Neven’s Colorado-based parents and his younger sister.
“He was a very mild-mannered but hard-working, well-regarded young man,” Rev. Petrovic said. “(The family was) dedicated to life here, and to have his happen to him, that’s something neighbors and much of our community cannot comprehend.
“These things that happen here in this country, unfortunately, it’s a specific phenomenon. I as a priest only can note that people in charge definitely need to pay attention to people needing mental health (treatment) so that these things don’t continue to happen.”
