Initial evidence indicates he committed suicide by shooting himself in the head with a pistol. After hearing the news of his death, a few dozen of his friends and followers gathered around Celo’s apartment building in downtown Sarajevo on Wednesday afternoon and attacked journalists and cameramen who wanted to get closer and film the scene, local media reported on Thursday. Journalists were protected by special police forces which were deployed to the scene.
 
Celo, 42, had a petty criminal record before Bosnia’s 1992-1995 war. At the very beginning of the conflict he and few other Sarajevo criminals organised their gangs and became almost the only armed and organized defence which protected the Bosnian capital from attack by Bosnian Serb and remnants of the Yugoslav National Army forces. During the war, Celo was appointed and served as the commander of the military police of the Bosniak-dominated Bosnian Army.  Bosnian police briefly arrested Celo in 2005, acting upon the request of the Serbian authorities and their claims that Celo was responsible for war crimes against Bosnian Serbs.
 
In recent years he was investigated and tried for several serious crime offences but most of those trials were delayed because his poor heart condition. According to his friends and lawyer, Celo was depressed because of his worsening medical condition and especially after his sister died a month ago. On Wednesday afternoon his brother and a cousin found him dead in his apartment, with a bullet wound to his head. Police officials have said that the investigation and autopsy will be carried out, but they also confirmed that initial evidence suggests suicide.