It was claimed that "Keljmendi was assisted by eight associates, members of a hostile Albanian separatist and irredentist group". These eight, six ethnic Albanians, an ethnic Muslim and a Roma, were later convicted for helping the attack. Yugoslav authorities concluded that Kelmendi had planned the attack shortly before it occurred. They stated that the military unit in which he served had no reason to suspect that he was mentally unstable and that he was "a loner who had a personal complex because he was ugly and quite nervous". He apparently socialized only with other Albanians and sometimes acted aggressively.