Žagunis was born in 1957 in Pakruojis district, studied in Trakai and Lentvaris. After graduating from the Vilnius Construction Technical College, he worked as a foreman, construction engineer and senior construction technician. From 1984 he served in the Ministry of the Interior in the protection of government and state buildings. In February 1991, he was appointed Head of the Bar Shift of the Patrol Service of the Dieveniškės section. For half a year before his death he was on duty at the Krakūnai road post.
At that time, the USSR military set fire to Lithuanian border posts and terrorised the officers working there. In May 1991, when a dangerous situation arose at the Šalčininkai checkpoint, it was decided to temporarily suspend the guarding of the checkpoint and to move the border guards’ carriages to safer places. The border guards of the Krakūnai checkpoint stayed with the carriage. Gintaras told his service friends to go and rest, while he remained on duty. “If you are going to die, it will be for one of you, not for all of you”, he added. On the fateful night of 19 May 1991, death awaited Žagunis as armed men from Belarus cut short his life.
In November 2004, a granite monument was unveiled at the site of his death in Krakūnai – a granite sculpture, almost five metres high on a pedestal, symbolising the Lithuanian border and the man who left.
