An allegedly mentally ill man was shot and killed by a bystander outside a Moscow church after attacking people and badly injuring at least one paramedic with a shovel, Russian media reported Tuesday.
Eyewitnesses told state news agencies that the assailant began harassing churchgoers of the Church of the Holy Myrrh-Bearing Women at around 9:50 a.m. Moscow time in the southeastern Maryino district.
The 29-year-old initially fled to a nearby park when priests, who purportedly knew the man, called for a psychiatric emergency team, the Kommersant newspaper reported, adding that a regular ambulance arrived instead.
“A really young female medic was trying to help when he grabbed a shovel and started striking her on the head,” an eyewitness told the news agency TASS.
The medic was reportedly hospitalized in critical condition, while a woman who works at the church and a passerby who tried to defend her were also hurt.
Another bystander shot the man when another ambulance team and National Guard troops were sent to detain him, according to Kommersant.
The shooter was arrested. Law enforcement sources told TASS that the weapon, a non-lethal rubber bullet firearm, was legally owned.
Moscow police told the news outlet Podyom that they had not been informed about the incident.
Kommersant reported that the man began regularly attending church after running into financial trouble with his ad agency. He was at some point reportedly diagnosed with paranoid schizophrenia and placed on a registry at a local psychiatric facility.
Church staff said the man had received regular medication and was usually calm.
The publication reported that the man was suffering from depression over the past two weeks and, on the morning of the attack, asked for an ambulance after complaining of hallucinations and “voices in his head.”
The Moscow Times was unable to independently verify the reports.
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