You're reading: Police identify suspect in killing security guards in Kyiv’s Karavan

The police have identified a man suspected of shooting dead three employees of private security companies in the Karavan shopping mall in Kyiv, Interior Minister of Ukraine Vitaliy Zakharchenko has told journalists on Thursday.

“There is a person suspected of committing this crime, and we have
every reason to think that this person committed the crime. We’re
working on the case. We’re taking special measures to detain this
person,” the minister said.

The minister also said that the police have obtained a video record
of the events at the scene of the crime from the shopping mall. He added
that, according to experts’ conclusions, the suspect used an unusual
gun that looks like Makarov pistol. In particular, the police found on
the scene of the crime a self-made device for collecting bullet cases,
which was attached to the gun and dropped during the shooting.

In turn, Head of the Public Liaisons Department of the Interior
Ministry Volodymyr Polischuk said that the suspect is a Kyiv resident
born in 1986.

“We know his full name. We are carrying out operations to find and detail him,” he said.

Zakharchenko added that if policemen, instead of private security
guards had worked at the shopping mall they would have search the
suspected first to check whether he had any dangerous things, and only
after that they would carry out further actions to find the stolen
goods.

The minister added that the Interior Ministry would most likely form a
working group to amend the legislation that regulates activities of
private security companies in order to prevent such incidents in future.

As reported, the robber shot dead three employees of a private
security firm and seriously wounded another one in the Karavan shopping
mall in Kyiv on Wednesday afternoon. One of the security guards saw a
visitor stealing a USB flash drive from a glass case. The guard asked
the man to go to the back room, where other guards were waiting. In the
room the man pulled out a gun and started shooting, killing three
security guards on the spot and seriously wounding a fourth one. The
attacker then fled the scene.

The Obolon District Police Office has opened a criminal case on the incident.

According to the Komsomolskaya Pravda v Ukraine newspaper, the killer
came to the cash desk with a loaf of bread in his hand. When the
security guards took him to the room he suddenly took out the gun and
started shooting, after which he left the shopping mall with the loaf of
bread.

Karavan’s security service chief was among the men shot dead by the
robber, reads the newspaper. Executive Director of Karavan Serhiy
Kyslenko promised Hr 100,000 for assistance in finding the criminal.

The article also reads that, according to some employees of the
shopping mall, the stealing of the USB flash drive was just a pretense,
and it was not a spontaneous shooting, but a planned murder by an
experienced gunman.