A HDZ rally in Benkovac, held on 18 March, also led to substantial media coverage in Croatia and Serbia, and significantly influenced the general atmosphere surrounding the election campaign. The event drew several thousand HDZ supporters and several hundred Serbs who booed speakers and threw missiles at them. During Tuđman's address, a 62-year-old Serbian man, Boško Čubrilović, approached the podium. When he was stopped by security, Čubrilović drew a gas pistol. He was thrown to the ground; the gun was confiscated and shown to the crowd and described as the gun meant to kill Tuđman. The rally disintegrated into a mass brawl that was stopped by police. Croatian media described the incident as an assassination attempt. Čubrilović was charged with threatening the security staff, for which he was tried and convicted in late 1990. The incident increased ethnic tensions and firmly positioned ethnic issues as an important theme of the election campaign. Croatian media described the incident as an attempt to destabilize Croatia, while Serbian media said the events in Benkovac embodied the legitimate fears of Croatian Serbs brought on by the rise of Croatian nationalism embodied by Tuđman and the HDZ.