The shooters were alleged members of the so-called “GTA gang” - a reference to the popular video game Grand Theft Auto - a mysterious crime group that used to terrorise drivers heading south on the M4 highway that connects Moscow and Rostov-on-Don.

Between 2013 and 2014 the gang was reported to stop cars on the highway by using different methods to damage their tyres, including shooting at the wheels. Gang members would then approach drivers, pretending to offer help but instead robbing and brutally murdering them.

In November 2014 the Investigative Committee reported arresting the supposed gang members. In August 2016, a trial of nine of them began in the Moscow Region Court located in a northwestern suburb of the capital.