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Police Officer Gets Life for Shooting Spree

Former Russian police officer Major Denis Yevsyukov standing in the defendant's box before his trial in a Moscow court in this December 28, 2009, file photo. Sergei Karpukhin

A Moscow court has convicted former police district chief Denis Yevsyukov of killing two people in a supermarket shooting and sentenced him to life in prison.

Russians were stunned by security camera footage showing a uniformed Yevsyukov, 32, stalking the supermarket aisles last April and firing gunshots.

Prosecutors said one of the victims was a female cashier whom he shot point-blank in the face.

He was also convicted Friday on 22 counts of attempted murder for the late-night rampage in southern Moscow that also wounded seven people.

Authorities have said the shootings occurred after Yevsyukov had argued violently with his wife and father-in-law following his 32nd birthday party.

When Judge Nikolai Fomin read out his life sentence on Friday, Yevsyukov, sitting in a glass box with his head bowed, did not flinch. Heavily armed police encircled him throughout the hearing.

Lawyer Igor Trunov, who represents two of the wounded from the shooting spree, said he had sent a complaint against the Russian state to the European Court of Human Rights because he believes that Russia does not protect its citizens.

"The state did not fulfill its obligations, and we have appealed to the European Court in order to create this system [of protection]," Trunov told reporters after the verdict.

If the Strasbourg-based court accepts the complaint, the wounded will have to prove that the state played a role in harming them, after which the court will then issue Russia with an order to investigate.

"Of course, his [Yevsyukov's] imprisonment means he is paying for this, but the state is acting dangerously," Trunov said.

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