"Don't move, police!" The 7 people who entered the barbershop in the village of Rrilë, Lezha, on Sunday evening, where Sokol Daci was injured, introduced themselves as police officers. Camouflaged and hooded, 5 of them were armed with automatic firearms, while the other 2 were carrying baseball bats.
From the investigative actions carried out and the examination of security cameras, it appears that the perpetrators intended to rape 21-year-old Merando Nikulaj, with whom they had had a conflict several months earlier. However, as soon as they entered the barbershop, where Nikulaj was getting a haircut, they were confronted with gunfire.
According to the data, in addition to police officer Besart Kovaçi, who was arrested for abuse of power, 21-year-old Nikulaj himself is suspected of having fired a gun. In these circumstances, one of the 7 people responded with automatic fire, injuring barber Sokol Daci.
Up to this stage of the investigation, the police have identified and declared 4 of the people involved in the incident wanted. They are Gerardo Ndoka, Eliseo Ndoka, Kevin Ndoka and 21-year-old Merando Nikulaj, who is suspected of being injured in the leg, but did not present himself for medical assistance at the hospital. They have been charged with “Attempted intentional murder” and “Unlicensed possession of firearms and ammunition”, while intensive work continues to capture them. The police are conducting checks in several areas where they are suspected of being hiding.
The incident, which occurred on Sunday evening in the center of the village of Rrilë, was initially reported as an assassination attempt. However, upon full investigation, it turns out that it was a gunfight between the parties, as a result of a previous conflict that occurred in March 2025, in the Kuna area of Shëngjin.
At that time, members of the Nikulaj tribe initially had a verbal conflict and then deliberately crashed their vehicle into two members of the Ndoka tribe, who were riding motorcycles.