A Moscow police colonel was detained after he fired two shots from an air gun, injuring two people, amid an argument with a male passenger who refused to give up his seat on the metro, Interfax reported Friday.
The officer, Alexander Kurochkin, who was not wearing his uniform, fired the rubber bullets on the platform of the Timiryazevskaya metro station after he and the male passenger exited the train at about 8:30 p.m. Thursday, the report said.
The bullets hit a woman in the chest and another in the shin. The woman with the shin injury was hospitalized.
Kurochkin also struck the male passenger in the nose, Interfax said.
Kurochkin had ordered the man to give up his seat to an elderly woman, but the passenger had refused, the report said.
Kurochkin was detained on the spot, and subsequent tests showed he had not been drinking. He has apologized and offered to pay damages, Interfax said.
The two female passengers have refused to press charges.
Investigators are considering charging Kurochkin with hooliganism.
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