2021 school shooting in Russia
On 20 September 2021, a mass shooting occurred at Perm State University, in the city of Perm, Perm Krai, Russia. Six people were killed and 47 others were injured. The attacker, identified as 18-year-old Timur Bekmansurov, was arrested after being wounded by police.
Background.
The shooting occurred roughly four months after another school shooting in Kazan, Russia, in which nine people were killed. In the aftermath of that shooting, the legal age to buy a gun in Russia was increased from 18 to 21, but the law was not yet in effect at the time of the Perm shooting. Authorities had blamed previous school shootings on foreign influence from news of similar incidents in the United States and elsewhere.
Shooting.
While the university has 12,000 students enrolled, only 3,000 individuals were on campus at the time of the shooting. The shooter was tracked by security cameras walking towards the university around 11:30 am while carrying a shotgun. He was able to overpower and injure the security guard before the guard was able to activate a panic button. A student at the college said that he heard gunshots while travelling in the elevator and that he saw what he believed to be the gunman shooting at two female students who were trying to escape. At around 11:30 local time, a man wearing a military helmet and balaclava, carrying a seven-shot (6+1) 12-gauge Huglu Atrox T pump-action shotgun approached Building 8 of Perm State University. Prior to this (the first reports of a man with a gun were recorded at 11:27 a.m.), he had fired several shots at passing vehicles and people at the campus entrance and on campus. During massacre the shooter carried 131 rounds (two bandoliers with 26 12/76 rounds and 49 12/70 rounds and pouch with 49 12/70 rounds, also 7 12/70 rounds that he loaded in his shotgun). In total he fired thirty-seven shots.
Students and teachers inside the university, who were involved in lessons at the time, used furniture such as chairs to barricade the internal doors closed. Meanwhile, video footage from outside the university showed students using classroom windows to escape, and the gunman walking outside the building. Police arrived at the scene and challenged the gunman, with a gunfight ensuing. The suspect was wounded while resisting arrest and taken to a local hospital to be treated. As of 5 October 2021, the perpetrator had regained consciousness after requiring a leg amputation for the injuries sustained during the gunfight with the police.
Victims.
Six people were killed during the shooting. They were identified as five women and one man, aged between 18 and 66 years old:
47 others were injured (including 23 who were wounded by gunfire), with all except the gunman in stable condition by 22 September.
Perpetrator.
Russian police named 18-year-old law student Timur Maratovich Bekmansurov (Russian: Тимур Маратович Бекмансуров) (born 8 March 2003) as the gunman. Was born in Glazov. He specialised in forensics. His mother worked as an accountant, and his father worked with the military who left the family in 2012. Prior to the shooting, Bekmansurov had posted an image of himself with a shotgun, helmet, and ammunition to his VK account. He captioned the photo with the statement: "I've thought about this for a long time, it's been years and I realized the time has come to do what I dreamt of." In the post, he also said he was "overflowing with hate". He later clarified "What happened was not a terrorist attack (at least from a legal point of view). I was not a member of an extremist organization, I was nonreligious and apolitical. Nobody knew what I was going to do, I carried out all these actions myself." Bekmansurov's left leg was amputated due to a blood clot in the hospital.
A spokesperson for the Russian National Guard told reporters that Bekmansurov legally owned a shotgun for hunting as well.
According to the publicized testimony of the former teacher: "Timur was distinguished by his intelligence, helped if asked, and also liked Hitler, supported his views, said he would have done the same".
At one of the court hearings that took place, defendant Timur Bekmansurov demanded that the cell phone he had taken with him on the day of the shooting be destroyed. After listing the physical evidence, the prosecutor asked Bekmansurov what to do with some of his belongings: a computer, four memory cards, a tablet, and three cell phones. He asked for the phone he took with him on the day of the shooting, his shoes, jacket and socks to be destroyed. The shooter also asked to give his Lenovo computer and smartwatch to his mother. Bekmansurov's testimony was also voiced at the court hearings, he said that he hated people: "I hated people. I decided to attack an educational institution and realized that people would die because of panic. I wanted to do it. I aimed my gun, wanting to cause death. I loaded it on the fly".
During the interrogations it turned out that in addition to PGNIU, Bekmansurov applied to two other universities - Higher School of Economics and Perm Humanitarian and Pedagogical University. But he chose the law faculty of the PGNIU university and in August decided that he would shoot at people.
On October 31, 2022, during the court hearing, Bekmansurov said that he started using snus from the age of 13. According to him, he did it daily and repeatedly - up to the time he committed the crime at the university, and from the age of 14 he started using psychedelic drugs. He also admitted to using ecstasy in May 2021.
Bekmansurov claimed at trial that he suffered from suicidal and paranoid thoughts, tinnitus in his ears and head, and feelings of tightness in his brain. It follows from Bekmansurov's testimony read out in court that in May 2021 he had uncontrollable outbursts of aggression. He could not explain their cause. He began to direct his aggression towards his girlfriend, fearing that he would not be able to control himself and would take her life, Bekmansurov broke up with his girlfriend. It also appears from his testimony that if he had met her on the day of the massacre, he would not have shot her because he loved her.
Bekmansurov's ex-girlfriend stated in a deposition that he said he did not see the meaning of life: “Several times he sent me videos showing cruel treatment of people. He considered it normal, saying he hated humanity".
During his testimony, Bekmansurov said that before and after the shooting at PGNIU everything seemed unreal to him - as if he was watching what was happening from the outside. He considered different ways to commit suicide, but he said he "didn't have the guts" to make up his mind. The desire to die became the motive for the crime. Bekmansurov wanted to be killed when he was arrested. Bekmansurov's read-out testimony showed that he did not remember killing some people on the day of the shooting. He also said that he had never developed relationships with his peers and was ridiculed in the first grade.
From the testimony of Bemansurov's classmate it became known that during the conversation he suggested that he personally or jointly with him to commit a mass murder: either to shoot people or to run them down with a car. He wanted to film it all on camera, like a documentary movie.
During the massacre, Bekmansurov wore a black T-shirt that read "no mercy".
Legal proceedings.
A criminal case against the attacker was initiated under Part 2 of Art. 105 (murder of two or more persons, committed in a generally dangerous way, with a rowdy motive), Part 3, Art. 30 (attempted crime), Art. 317 (encroachment on the life of a law enforcement officer) and under Part 2 of Art. 167 (damage to another's property in a generally dangerous way, with a rowdy motive) of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation. Relatives of the dead and those injured in the shooting filed suits against the defendant for moral damages in the total amount of 24.91 million rubles.
According to the results of a psychiatric examination, Bekmansurov was diagnosed with schizoid personality disorder, but he was declared sane at the time of the crime.
In November 2022, the state prosecution demanded that Bekmansurov be sentenced to life imprisonment. Bekmansurov admitted his guilt in full in court, expressed remorse, and asked the court not to sentence him to life imprisonment. But the court refused, and on 28 December 2022, Timur Bekmansurov received a life sentence.
In early 2024, Bekmansurov filed an appeal to the Supreme Court asking for the life sentence to be overturned, the case was heard on May 7, 2024, Bekmansurov tried to argue that he was insane and his life sentence should be overturned. He described himself as feeble-minded, claimed that he was suffering from psychosis and that the medical examiners were mistaken and did not pay attention to his well-being. During the hearing, the prosecutor said that the defendant did not have dementia or psychosis. The verdict was upheld.
Aftermath.
Students, faculty, and residents of Perm used the exterior fence of the university to create a makeshift memorial with carnations, candles, photos, and other items.
Authorities have blamed foreign influence for previous school shootings, and the attack has brought forward additional questions and potential legal changes. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov announced on 20 September that legislative action had already been taken to further restrict gun purchases.
Sources in law enforcement agencies said that Bekmansurov will be sent to a prison in the Chelyabinsk region, as there are no proper conditions for him in the Perm region: “This convict should be in a cell alone, the premises for Bekmansurov should have a number of peculiarities because of the figure's disability”.
See also.
Another school-attack incident that happened previously, in the same year:
Some other school shooting incidents in Russia:
Also:
References.
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