The 25 year old was arrested and admitted his guilt. Witnesses: he was shouting against God and Christianity. Among the victims, a nun who tried to stop the killer. Local priest she is a "martyr of Christ".

Moscow (AsiaNews / Agencies) - Dressed in black, with a swastika behind his back and armed with a pistol, a 25- year-old broke into a church in Eastern Russia and, after firing indiscriminately against icons and faithful, killed two people and injured six others.  The incident took place on February 9 in the Cathedral of the Resurrection, the main church of the Eparchy of South Sakhalin and the Kurile Islands.  A nun and parishioner, who had tried to stop the man, died o the spot from their injuries . According to investigators' reports, the young man - who works for a private security firm - was drunk at the time of the shooting. The murderer was found and admitted he was guilty, but did not explain the reasons for his actions. The Investigative Committee has opened an investigation for "murder of two or more persons" ( art.105.2 of the Russian Criminal Code ) and ordered a psychiatric evaluation.

Police sources revealed to Interfax news agency that the young man had shown interest in neo-pagan literary texts. The same sources have not ruled out that the gesture was caused by a prolonged depression, noted both by friends and by relatives.

The site Lifenews , named the killer as Stepan Komarov: the young man served in the Navy before being hired as a security guard . Local media reported that at the time of the shooting he was wearing two crosses on his chest. According to the newspaper Moskvovsky Komsomolets , the murderer had received the weapon from his company, which had commissioned him to escort an armored car from a local bank that day. None of his colleagues, however, saw him. According to unofficial reconstructions, the 25 year old returned home, dressed in the black clothes with a swastika on his back, then headed to the church.

Speaking to the religious news site Pravmir.ru , Archpriest Viktor Gorbach, Moscow Metropolitan in Sakhalin, said that the young man entered the cathedral shortly after the end of the Mass and began to shoot t the faithful and icons hanging on the wall, after having broken a cross. Not many people were left and some managed to escape, but the nun and the parishioner who tried to stop the attacker were killed. According to him, the killer cursed God and Christianity, and for this reason - he added - the killed nun must be considered a "martyr of Christ". According to his reconstruction, the nun tried to draw to the attention of the armed young man to allow those who were still in the church, women and children, to escape.

The attack on the Cathedral of the Resurrection comes a few days after another incident that has rocked Russia: the shooting at a high school in Moscow February 3 where a student killed a professor and a policeman and took an entire class hostage for half an hour. (N.A.)

 

• Russia
• armed
• youth
• church
• killing
• Sakhalin