Russia mass shooting suspect captured

MOSCOW -- An ex-convict suspected in the shooting of six people in the Russian city of Belgorod was arrested late Tuesday night as he tried to leave on a freight train, a spokesman for the Interior Ministry said.

Sergei Pomazun injured a police officer with a knife during his arrest shortly before midnight, ministry spokesman Kirill Gerasimenko told Russia-24, a TV news station. If convicted in the six slayings, Pomazun, 32, could face life in prison.

His capture came after a daylong manhunt involving thousands of police and volunteers in the southwestern city of about 350,000. Gerasimenko said Interior Minister Vladimir Kolokoltsev personally led the pursuit.

Pozamun was suspected of shooting three shop assistants at a hunting store Monday afternoon, then shooting three passersby outside, including two teenage girls. All six died of their wounds.

One of the girls, who was 16, died at the scene; the other girl, 14, died later in a hospital. The younger girl’s father died Tuesday of a heart attack after spending the night grieving at the site of the shootings, authorities said.

Pozamun was armed with a carbine he stole from his father’s firearms safe and about 40 live rounds, according to Yekaterina Vozhzhova, spokeswoman for the Belgorod police department.

Russia-24 aired chilling video Tuesday that showed a man identified as Pomazun shooting the two girls outside the shop. The video was taken by a camera mounted above the shop’s front door.

The massive manhunt ranged through every house, street and yard in the city, which is not far from the Ukrainian border and is about 400 miles southwest of Moscow.

Police have not yet established the motive behind the crime, Vozhzhova said.

Pomazun served two prison terms for theft, the newspaper Komsomolskaya Pravda reported. Pomazun returned home from his most recent prison term in December.

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