For more than four hours, an armed man held a mother and daughter prisoner, injuring a 70-year-old man who is still in danger of life. When Senior Inspector Dobromir Panayotov from the police station in Sandanski arrives at the house with the hostages, he does not know that he will have a very important role in resolving the crisis.

"When we saw that there was a weapon, we went into hiding, behind a brick wall, gradually we started talking, that is, shouting, shouting both him and I. Gradually, until we established contact and some trust between us. I started moving, I stood at the door, then on the stairs, gradually forward," Senior Inspector Dobromir Panayotov told BTV.

And so four hours in which he convinced the armed 41-year-old man, who came from Lomsko, to seek an explanation from his beloved, who abandoned him.

Here's the man barricading himself and taking hostages.

"He was on the top floor, where the outdoor terrace stands, where the water bottle stands. Both women sat there. In fact, he started to correlate with us and have contact with us. I've never been in a situation like this before," Panayotov said.

"What I got the initial impression was that he was quite aggressive and his focus was mainly on both women. He went through different cycles of behavior, out of anger and assault, he went into crying, self-doubt, why he was doing it," he said.

Conversations are working. The perpetrator lets go. Inspector Panayotov in the house and later he takes him out of there.

"He wanted to talk, even though he gave up the guns, even though he calmed down, he wanted to tell himself the pain. That's how it turned out. Finally, he gave me the keys, I unlocked, we went in to him, we sat down, we talked," Panayotov said.

Senior Inspector Panayotov has been in the system since 2007, the father of a five-year-old girl. He refused to be called a hero, even though he had saved at least two lives.

"No, I don't feel like a hero at all, I accept that I have done my job, these are my duties in the police. We built a relationship, I don't know how you stopped at me. It worked!" shared Panayotov.

Hostage Drama

negotiation

Valkovo village

Blagoevgrad