Two cars stop on the road to Krushopek. Out of one come two men, one with a sharp object in his hand. Out of the other comes a man the 25-year-old driver had a prior disagreement with. He cocks the pistol, points it at him, then strikes him with the butt. This isn't a scene from a film - this is a police bulletin from last night, a twenty-minute drive from the centre of Skopje.

The report was filed at the Skopje Interior Ministry around 8pm. The victim is E.J. from the village of Krushopek, near Skopje. The suspect is A.S.V. from Saraj. The Ministry puts it in the careful language of an institution that doesn't want to prejudge: "Measures are being taken to clear up the case." Six words that mean everything and nothing.

What was left unsaid in the statement matters more than what was said. What kind of "prior disagreement" requires two men, two vehicles and a firearm to be settled on a public road? Is it a personal score, a neighbours' dispute, something older? The Ministry doesn't say. And that's where the real problem starts - not with the incident, but with what follows it.

The weapon was cocked, but not fired. That is the line between one police bulletin and one death, and yesterday that line was held solely by the nerve of the man with his finger on the trigger. A legal system must not depend on how inclined somebody happened to be to shoot.

The most uncomfortable question isn't who pulled out the pistol, but how he got hold of it. A legally registered weapon in the hands of a man who settles disputes on the road means our vetting system runs as a formality. An illegal weapon means the detection system runs the same way. Neither option is comfortable.

We know what comes next. Criminal charges, perhaps custody, then months of silence, then a verdict nobody will read about. Which is why this case is worth remembering with a name and a place - Krushopek, 5 August, 8pm. So that in six months somebody can ask what became of it.