Target School No. 263 Perpetrator Sergey Gordeyev Location Moscow, Russia | Non-fatal injuries 1 Start date February 3, 2014 Total number of deaths 2 | |
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Weapons Tikka T3 bolt-action rifle
Small-caliber Japanese Browning BAR M1918 Motive Revenge against his teacher, possible mental illness Attack types School shooting, Hostage, Spree killer Similar Sana'a school shooting, Olean High School shooting, Red Lake shootings, Azerbaijan State Oil Academy, Mercaz HaRav massacre | ||
Moscow school shooting student kills teacher policeman in hostage drama
On February 3, 2014, 15-year-old high school student Sergey Gordeyev (also spelled as Sergei Gordeev; Russian: Сергей Гордеев) opened fire at School No. 263 in Otradnoye District, Moscow, Russia, killing a teacher. Gordeyev then took 29 students hostage, killed one police officer, and injured another. Later on, he surrendered to the authorities. It is the second school shooting in Russia's history, the first being the Beslan school hostage crisis.
Contents
Shooting
At around 11:40 a.m., Gordeyev, concealing his weapons with a bag and fur coat, went to his school armed with a Tikka T3 rifle and a small-caliber Japanese Browning BAR M1918 that belonged to his father, a police colonel. He threatened the security guard and went to his geography classroom, where he shot his teacher, 29-year-old Andrey Kirillov (Russian: Андрей Кириллов), in the stomach, then fatally shot him in the head upon seeing he was still alive. After killing Kirillov, he then took the class of 29 students hostage. Gordeyev then shot at responding police officers in the school, wounding Warrant Officer Sergei Bushuyev, 38, and Senior Sergeant Vladimir Krokhin, 29; Bushuyev later died at a hospital, while Krokhin survived a gunshot wound to the shoulder.
About an hour after the shooting first started, the Special Forces responded to the scene. Gordeyev initially called his mother before the Special Forces called in his father to negotiate with him. He initially spoke with Gordeyev on the phone for fifteen minutes before being brought into the school with a bulletproof vest to personally talk to him; thirty minutes afterward, Gordeyev released the hostages. At around 1:00 p.m., Gordeyev surrendered to authorities and was captured. A Russian report stated that a total of eleven shots were fired by Gordeyev during the shooting.
Victims
Two people were killed in the shooting, while a third was wounded. The victims are:
Reaction
Russian President Vladimir Putin called this incident a tragedy and asked to give one's attention to children's education and gun control. He also told a Moscow Kremlin advisory council on the arts and culture that "the new generation...needs to be raised with good artistic taste and the ability to understand and value the theatrical, dramatic and musical arts." Criticism was also aimed at violent video games and exposure to American culture. Moscow Mayor Sergey Sobyanin later stated that schools in Moscow have been set to be reviewed for security.
Perpetrator
15-year-old Sergey Gordeyev (born 4 October 1998) was identified as the perpetrator of the shooting. He attended School No. 263, was a straight-A student, and was due to graduate with honors, being described as a "model student" who set up "an example for the whole school", but also "quiet". He reportedly had conflicts with a geography teacher, believing that he was trying to interfere with his graduation. Reports initially stated that this teacher wasn't Andrey Kirillov, but Kirillov was later identified as the teacher Gordeyev had conflicts with. Russian Investigative Committee spokesman Vladimir Markin later stated that Gordeyev was suffering from an emotional disorder, while other students stated that he had no previous apparent conflicts with other teachers and fellow pupils.