The 2012 Perla Hair Salon Shooting

On March 5, 2012, Gheorghe Vlădan entered the Perla hair salon in Bucharest and opened fire. Two women were killed and six other people were wounded. Contemporary and later judicial reporting established that one of the dead was Vlădan's estranged wife, who worked at the salon, and the other was the salon cashier. The violence unfolded against a documented background of marital separation and threats, making the case both a mass shooting and an intimate-partner homicide.

The victims

The two people killed were Vlădan's wife and the salon cashier, identified in Romanian judicial reporting as Mariana Bendre. Six other salon employees or customers were wounded.

Romanian reports are not fully consistent about the first name used for Vlădan's wife: established outlets have rendered it as Florina in some court-linked reporting and Felicia in other contemporaneous coverage. Rather than silently choose between conflicting secondary reports, this file refers to her primarily as Vlădan's wife unless the source being described provides a specific form.

Documented warning signs before the attack

Mediafax and other Romanian reporting on the criminal proceedings said Vlădan's wife had complained to police on March 1, 2012 that her husband, from whom she was seeking a divorce, was threatening her and possessed a firearm. The next divorce hearing had been scheduled for March 7.

The existence of a prior complaint became an important part of public scrutiny after the killings. It is presented here as documented pre-attack context, not as a separate criminal conviction against officials who handled the complaint.

The shooting

On the afternoon of March 5, Vlădan entered the Perla salon carrying a handgun. Prosecutors and court reporting described him firing at his wife and the cashier and then continuing to shoot inside the business. Two women died and six other people were injured.

AGERPRES later summarized the prosecution's case as involving two deaths, six wounded people and shots fired in the direction of two additional people who were not hit. A forensic psychiatric examination concluded that Vlădan had criminal capacity at the time of the offense.

After the shooting, Vlădan left the salon area and was taken into custody. The investigation led to charges including aggravated forms of murder and attempted murder under the law then in force, along with weapons-related and other offenses.

First-instance life sentence

On February 12, 2013, the Bucharest Tribunal sentenced Vlădan to life imprisonment. Contemporary public-radio and national reporting emphasized that the judgment was not yet final at that stage.

The distinction matters because the life sentence was later upheld on appeal and then, years afterward, replaced through a separate sentence-conversion proceeding. A case page frozen at the 2013 headline would therefore give an incomplete picture of the current judicial result.

Appeal in 2013

In October 2013, the Bucharest Court of Appeal again imposed life imprisonment. Digi24 reported that the appellate court maintained the core punishment and adjusted civil damages. At that point further review remained legally possible.

The archive does not characterize arguments by defense counsel about premeditation or mental condition as judicial findings. The operative conviction and sentence came from the courts, while defense statements are treated only as positions advanced in litigation.

The 2020 sentence conversion

The most important later development came in 2019–2020. In December 2019, the Giurgiu Tribunal granted a request to replace Vlădan's life-imprisonment penalty with a fixed term of 25 years. A challenge to that ruling was then heard by the Bucharest Court of Appeal.

On March 5, 2020, AGERPRES reported that the Bucharest Court of Appeal rejected the challenge and left the 25-year term in place. The decision was described as final. This page therefore reports 25 years as the operative final prison term rather than continuing to label Vlădan as serving an unchanged life sentence.

Why the legal update matters

The 2013 and 2020 rulings are not contradictory when placed in sequence. Vlădan was convicted and sentenced to life imprisonment, but Romanian law later allowed a court to consider replacing that punishment with a fixed term under the circumstances applicable to his case. The 2020 final decision did not acquit him, vacate the murders or reclassify the victims' deaths as something else. It changed the sentence being executed.

Public-safety aftermath

The attack also triggered scrutiny of firearm licensing and psychological evaluations for personnel with access to lethal weapons. Contemporary reporting described internal reviews after it emerged that Vlădan had retained access to a firearm despite the deteriorating family situation.

Those institutional consequences are relevant to the case's public impact, but this page does not infer criminal liability from administrative criticism. The adjudicated criminal responsibility for the shooting belongs to Vlădan.

Timeline

1. March 1, 2012
   Threat complaint reported

   Vlădan's wife reports threats to police while divorce proceedings are pending, according to later court-linked reporting.

2. March 5, 2012
   Two people killed at the Perla salon

   Vlădan opens fire inside the Bucharest salon, killing his wife and the cashier and wounding six other people.

3. February 12, 2013
   Life sentence at first instance

   The Bucharest Tribunal convicts Vlădan and imposes life imprisonment. The judgment is not yet final.

4. October 2013
   Appeal maintains life imprisonment

   The Bucharest Court of Appeal leaves the life sentence in place while modifying civil-damages provisions.

5. December 2019
   Giurgiu Tribunal converts the sentence

   A court grants a request to replace life imprisonment with a fixed 25-year prison term.

6. March 5, 2020
   Twenty-five-year term becomes final

   The Bucharest Court of Appeal rejects the challenge to the sentence conversion, leaving the 25-year term in force.

Current status

Solved / Adjudicated. Gheorghe Vlădan was convicted for the Perla salon attack. Although he originally received life imprisonment, the final 2020 sentence-conversion decision left him with a 25-year prison term. The conviction for the attack was not erased by that change.