6th Victim Dies After Alleged Office Shooting Spree by In-House Counsel; Some Blame Computer Game
A sixth person has died from a Wednesday shooting spree in which an in-house Russian lawyer is accused of shooting seven individuals at work after being dumped by his former girlfriend, who also was employed by the same pharmaceutical company.
Although initial reports about the crime indicated that the two worked in the same Moscow office building of the Rigla pharmaceutical chain, a subsequent article in the Daily Mail says Dmitry Vinogradov, 29, was admitted, as a company lawyer, into the building where his ex, Anna Kaznikova, 26, worked.
Security video footage and still shots provided by police show the attorney entering the building through a security checkpoint, wearing a jacket and a tall backpack. He then disappears from sight briefly as he reportedly enters a restroom. He emerges dressed in black army fatigues and carrying a rifle and a shotgun as he heads into a stairwell.
He had called Kaznikova that morning, apparently confirming that she was at work, and on his way up to her office in the finance department he killed two people on the stairs, the article says. He then shot five more people in the head during an 18-second killing spree before he ran out of ammunition, was overpowered by co-workers and tied up by security guards. Kaznikova can be seen running, uninjured, from the office in which her colleagues were murdered.
Sky News reports that he was trying to reload and says more than 200 shotgun cartridges were found in his backpack.
Killed at the scene were Alexander Biryuk, Denis Moiseev and Andrei Tertiakov, all 33, and Elena Lapshina and Natalia Plekhanova, both 25, according to the Daily Mail. The sixth victim, Nikita Strelnikov, 30, died Thursday. He reportedly suffered multiple wounds as he tried to shield female colleagues.
Yaroslava Sergenyuk, 24, was shot in the chest and face and taken by helicopter to a hospital.
Relying on information from police, the Daily Mail says Vinogradov allegedly confessed that he had purchased a rifle, 200 bullets and a uniform in March, after splitting with Kaznikova in January and unsuccessfully trying to win her back.
Blaming her colleagues for urging Kaznikova to break up with him, Vinogradov allegedly told police “I came into the office where Anya worked and said: ‘Hello, colleagues,’ and she saw how I began to shoot all of them. I wanted them to see how strong I was and then I planned to kill myself.”
The attorney reportedly had been drinking for days before the attack, was being medicated for depression, according to his mother, and had recently made statements on a social networking account equivalent to Facebook suggesting that killing people would solve problems, as detailed in an earlier ABAJournal.com post.
Pravda reports that Vinogradov enjoyed playing the video game Manhunt and says lawmakers and others are now suggesting that the game should be made illegal in Russia, following the slayings.
Earlier coverage:
ABAJournal.com: :”In-House Russian Lawyer Accused of Shooting 7, Slaying 5, at Company’s Moscow Offices”
