Massacre in Moscow supermarket
28 April, 2009, 20:14
A Moscow police officer who went on a shooting massacre through a supermarket on Monday has caused outrage from human rights activists and lawmakers in Russia, who are calling for stricter gun controls and police reform.
Denis Yevsyukov shot dead three people and wounded another six.
Deadly 'birthday after-party'
On Monday night, Moscow police major Denis Yevsyukov, who has just marked his 31st birthday, began his rampage when he killed a taxi driver who gave him a lift, firing six shots at about 1 A.M.
Then, on his way to the supermarket Yevsyukov he shot and wounded a man and a woman.
Following that, the officer stormed into a supermarket brandishing a pistol, and started shooting, instantly killing a guard and a saleswoman.
Customers had to dive for cover, but still five were wounded. The wounded have been taken to hospitals where some are said to be in critical condition.
Survivors recall…
Yelena, her boyfriend and their friends were socializing in front of a local supermarket. They were approached by a man wearing a police jacket. All of a sudden, a bullet pierced her shoulder and came out of her neck. One of Yelena’s friends is currently in the emergency room.
“I could tell right away he was somewhat drunk. I was standing there shocked as he loaded the gun. I thought he'd just shoot into the air to scare us. But the man first fired at me, then at my friend,” said Yelena Dudal, one of the survivors.
For Luiza Mukhamedova an ordinary stop at the store almost turned fatal. A bullet went through her jaw and damaged her neck.
“He was firing his gun at everybody around him, trying to injure as many people as possible. He would shoot again and again. As I rushed away, I saw some guy fall to the ground nearby,” Luiza recalls.
Luiza and Yelena are among the six people major Denis Yevsyukov wounded. Three others were not so lucky.
Police patrols that arrived on the scene to strike the shooter down were drawn into a full scale gun battle with the distraught officer, with the gunman having several spare ammunition clips with him.
“He was shooting back fiercely. It’s a miracle that no one arresting him got hurt,” a police officer told the ITAR-TASS news agency.
Police intentionally took Denis Yevsyukov alive in order to be able to bring him to justice, reported RIA Novosti, citing Nikolay Trifonov – a Major-General of the Department of Public Order.
“The police had every right to shoot him at the scene of the crime but refrained, so that Yevsyukov’s actions received legal treatment later,” said Trifonov.
Top cop sacked
Earlier the Russian president fired Yevsyukov’s commanding officer Major General Viktor Ageev. Ageev is no longer in charge of the Interior Ministry’s directorate for southern Moscow – the district where the massacre occurred and where the department, which the rampaging man headed, is located.
 Denis Yevsyukov (AFP Photo / Kommersant / Andrei Stenin) |
The retirement, however, was not directly connected with the tragic events on Monday. Ageev submitted his retirement request more than a week ago. According to Interfax news agency, he decided to quit after failing to do the job.
“Over the recent times – a year to be more exact – the directorate failed to stabilize the crime situation in the district. The directorate’s head could not fix things and decided to leave the post,” Moscow police spokesman Viktor Biryukov told the media on April 20.
Several other high-ranking police officials were fired after the massacre as well.
'Weird, nervous and impulsive'
One of Evsyukov’s colleagues stated that before the accident, Yevsyukov "had been weird, nervous and impulsive."
Police say that there have been previous cases with this man when he was allegedly drinking and displayed aggressive behaviour.
Newspapers write that approximately a year ago, Yevsyukov got drunk in the café and attacked people with tear-gas spray. This has been confirmed by police. Authorities have also confirmed the fact that the gunman was drinking before this latest attack.
According to his co-workers, Yevsyukov may have had some domestic problems with his wife. Police say that she was angry with him over his job, which may have factored into his actions.
In addition, police said that this man may have had an argument with the taxi driver whom he later killed. On the contrary, according to people who say to be the driver’s friends, they were socializing the night before and claimed that their friend was sober, saying he was a kind man and that he had a child.
Psychiatrists are trying to determine what could have caused him to commit these crimes. They say that they are also determining the state of his mental health, which could take almost 90 days.
Early reports by the media cited sources in the police as saying Yevsyukov was not in control of his faculties during the shootout and could not give an account of events after he was arrested. This may have legal implications, since Russian criminal law says being in this ‘state of emotional affect’ mitigates the crime.
Critics of the theory point out that if there was a family row during his birthday on Monday, the police chief had more than enough time to recover before starting the shooting. They believe police may be trying to whitewash their former colleague.
“All his behaviour, the character of the shooting, selection of targets, determination of his movements and actions, suggest he had an acute psychosis. Affect has nothing to do with it. It may have had a small influence at most,” told RT criminal psychiatry expert Professor Mikhail Vinogradov.
He added that media reports now available are too confusing to draw any conclusions now and a lengthy medical examination is needed before judging whether Yevsyukov was in control of his actions or not.
“If he was sane – it’s a life sentence. If not – he must be forcibly treated in a ward rather than prosecuted as a criminal,” the expert said.
If Yevsyukov is found guilty he could face life imprisonment. The murder of several people carries a potential death sentence according to the Russian criminal code, but since there is a moratorium on capital punishment in the country, a life sentence is the harshest possible punishment for Yevsyukov’s actions.
Citing the head of the Internal Ministry’s Press service, Gazeta.ru says that the ministry has already admitted the failure of the staff testing system. Oleg Yelnikov is quoted as saying:
“The employment procedure at the Internal Affairs Ministry includes meeting with a psychologist. It’s followed by an annual physical examination, which also includes a visit to a psychologist.”
However, he said, it often happens that policemen prefer not to be tested and simply ask the doctors to put a signature where it’s needed.
”Now we see that this system doesn’t work; so in the nearest future the ministry will reconsider its policy considering the issue,” he said.
He added: “As far as I understand, Yevsyukov passed his medical tests fictitiously.”
 Denis Yevsyukov |
Control over officers should be tightened – experts
Experts say that in general, control over police officers who have access to weapons, should be intensified many times over.
“Firstly, there should be control over the mental state of those who are carrying weapons,” says Vinogradov.
“Secondly, it's crucial to have annual medical examinations, including both psychologists and psychiatrists. Such mental states always have a background. Slowly anger, irritation and depression, get stored for a long time, and then we have an explosion.”
In turn, a police source has unofficially informed Interfax news agency that starting on Monday, the Moscow Police Department is preparing to conduct an all-out examination of all service guns and ammunition of law enforcement officers. Experts have already verified that the pistol the major used for the killings was not his service pistol, but rather, was earlier stolen in Chechnya some nine years ago, and has a criminal record.
Total psychologic and psychiatric tests of all weapons-bearing personnel are also expected.
The incident has caused massive outrage from society and Russia’s officials. The Interior Minister Rashid Nurgaliev has said that there needs to be more control over who works in police, and that the Ministry needs reform.
His opinion has been backed by MPs in the State Duma and human rights groups. They say that when cases like this occur society, at the very least, loses trust in the police institution.
Russian president dismisses Moscow police chief - 2
28/04/2009 22:08 (Adds police spokesman's comments in paras 3-5)
MOSCOW, April 28 (RIA Novosti) - Russian President Dmitry Medvedev dismissed on Tuesday the chief of the Moscow police, Col.-Gen. Vladimir Pronin, following a shooting involving an off-duty officer in a supermarket earlier this week.
Earlier on Tuesday, Medvedev also dismissed police Maj.-Gen. Viktor Ageyev, who headed the police department in Moscow's Southern Administrative District, where one of his senior officers, Tsaritsino district police chief Denis Yevsyukov, shot three people dead early on Monday.
A law enforcement spokesman said Pronin had tendered his resignation.
"Vladimir Pronin, like a true general, submitted his resignation over the incident in southern Moscow," Viktor Biryukov said.
He added that the Moscow police chief had met with Interior Minister Rashid Nurgaliyev earlier in the day, and the minister "supported Pronin's decision."
Following a family quarrel Yevsyukov, 32, took a taxi to a supermarket in southern Moscow shortly after midnight on Monday, where he shot the driver dead, before walking into the store and killing two more people. Six people were wounded in the attack.
Pronin, who personally visited the scene of the crime and spoke to Yevsyukov hours after the killing spree, told Russian media that the killer had until then been considered a good officer with strong potential, having served 14 years on the force without complaints from colleagues.
After questioning him, Pronin said: "His eyes were like saucers - he was not aware of anything and remembered nothing of what had happened - he just cried."
Russian Interior Minister Rashid Nurgaliyev said on Tuesday in an interview with Russia's Vesti news channel that the ministry would provide support and assistance to all the victims and their families and would conduct inspections in Moscow police departments.
Why are policemen seen as criminals?
28 April, 2009, 15:12
Many Russians do not trust the police as they consider servicemen a part of the criminal world, rather than enforcers of the law, says sociologist Boris Kagarlitsky.
“If you get in touch with the police you discover that there are some people who do their job well, and some who don’t. But the general image is very negative because of corruption most of all, and also because many people, who serve in the police, later move to private security agencies, which are often linked with the mafia. In that sense there’s no clear division between the police and crime,” Kagarlitsky says.
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