Moscow policeman opens fire in supermarket, killing three after argument with wife



This is the moment an off-duty police chief opened fire in a supermarket in southern Moscow this morning, killing at least three people and wounding seven.

'During the night Denis Yevsyukov had a fight with his wife and had a nervous breakdown,' a city police spokeswoman said.

She said he then went on a shooting spree in the shop, randomly spraying bullets at passers-by after first returning home to change into his police uniform.

A TV grab from Russian NTV channel Denis Yevsyukov reloading his pistol in the supermarket Ostrov just after midnight in Moscow



Yevsyukov is shown loading his gun in the all-night shop. He killed at least three people and wounded seven



Russian television broadcast CCTV footage from inside the supermarket showing Mr Yevsyukov calmly reloading his weapon as he walked down one of the food aisles.

Other reports claimed two people had died in the shooting. Seven others were wounded, four of them critically, Russian investigators said.



Russian news agencies reported Yevsyukov was celebrating his 32nd birthday in a cafe with his wife and father-in-law before he became enraged when she apparently complained that he was spending too much time at work since being promoted to head the Tsaritsyno police district in southern Moscow in November last year.

Denis Yevsyukov at the Simonovsky court in Moscow after his arrest following his gun rampage



Yevsyukov, a major who heads a southern Moscow police department, was caught after killing a driver, a supermarket cashier and customer, federal investigators said in a statement.

Yevsyukov killed the driver of a Chevrolet car who had dropped him off outside the 24-hour supermarket shortly after midnight. He then entered the store and began shooting at random.

A female cashier was shot in the face and died instantly while a male customer was killed after being hit in the chest. Six other people were wounded during the rampage, four of them seriously.

Russian television network NTV reported that supermarket employees activated a silent alarm to alert police as the shooting progressed.

Officers were met with shots when they tried to arrest Yevsyukov, the spokesman said. They managed to overpower him without further injury and he was taken to a psychiatric hospital for examination.



'He was firing vigorously, putting up resistance. It's a miracle none of the boys taking part in the arrest were injured,' a police source told the Itar-Tass agency.



Vladimir Pronin, Moscow's police chief, told the Interfax news that Mr Yevsyukov had no memory of the crime. He said: 'I talked to him at 4am. His eyes were as big as saucers and he didn't have a clue what had happened. He just wept. He was a great officer who was on a good career path – he obviously had some kind of psychotic attack'

Details of those killed were unavailable, but Russian news agency Interfax reported that four people were hospitalized with head injuries and they were aged between 19 and 23.

Mr Yevsyukov had risen rapidly through the ranks since joining the force in 2005. He had solved dozens of serious crimes as a detective and had won promotion based on his exemplary work record.



Colleagues reported that he had complaining of problems at work lately.