A dramatic nighttime shootout between policemen and car thieves in southwestern Moscow early Thursday left two people dead and two others injured — and was captured on a video posted on YouTube.
A three-member police patrol caught two thieves breaking into a car on Profsoyuznaya Ulitsa but came under gunfire after approaching them, RIA-Novosti reported.
The men were later identified as professional car thieves from Dagestan: Shamil Ismailov, 22, and his brother Abdul-Zakir, 25.
One of the policemen, Anton Akatov, 31, was killed on the spot, and Shamil Ismailov used his body as a shield during a shootout that lasted about 30 minutes, the tabloid Lifenews.ru reported.
Police intern Sergei Dyubkin was seriously injured, while the third officer, Nikolai Zadkov, detained Shamil Ismailov with the help of Viktor Shatayev, a police officer who arrived on the scene. Shatayev received a minor injury in the shootout.
The officers on patrol were not wearing bulletproof vests, as required, because of the heat, an unidentified law enforcement official told Lifenews.ru.
YouTube footage of the shootout, apparently filmed by eyewitnesses in a neighboring building, shows two police officers hiding behind a shed at one point and a series of gunshots being fired later. Other details are hard to make out because of the dark.
Shamil Ismailov was injured and died in the hospital hours after the shootout, and his brother managed to escape, Interfax said. Abdul-Zakir Ismailov has been placed on a wanted list, and Moscow police have released his photo in an effort to find him.
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