Sergei Makarov said by phone that Nikolai Perevoshchikov, 44, deputy interior minister of the republic, was shot in his bed in Izhevsk in the early hours of Sunday morning by intruders using a Kalashnikov.
"An unidentified gang forced their way into the flat and entered the bedrooms without being detected," Makarov said. "They opened fire killing the minister, his wife, their 23-year-old daughter and 22-year-old son."
Itar-Tass reported that three other family members had survived the attack.
Makarov said police and the local Security Ministry had begun investigations but refused to discuss police theories and motives.
Also Monday, Alexander Zvyagentsev, a spokesman for the Public Prosecutor's Office, said they had solved the murder last month of Vladimir Mikhailenko, 47, the chairman of Karelia's state property committee.
Mikhailenko was beaten to death after reportedly refusing to sign suspicious documents. "No one asked Mikhailenko to sign any suspicious documents," Zvyagentsev said, adding that police had detained two suspects.
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