News

In St. Petersburg, sentence imposed over a probe into murder of a student of the St. Petersburg University of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Russia

The evidence gathered by the Saint Petersburg Main Investigative Department of the Investigative Committee of Russia has been found by the court to be sufficient to sentence previously convicted Anton Golovyrtsev. He was found guilty of committing an offense under Paragraph K of Part 2 of Article 105 of the Criminal Code of Russia (murder motivated by hatred or enmity toward a particular social group).

The investigation and the court established that Golovyrtsev lived in St. Petersburg on money from renting an apartment belonging to his parents. He did not work or study anywhere, became interested in radical views, read extremist literature, was fond of weapons and shooting, and had a negative attitude toward law enforcement officers. In 2010, he purchased a gas pistol converted to fire live ammunition, which he tested in a wooded area located in the Kurortny District.  In 2014, Golovyrtsev decided to commit a murder of some official. He chose a police officer as the object of a criminal offense. On February 18, 2014, he followed a cadet of the St. Petersburg University of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Russia who walked out of the Kommendantsky Prospekt metro station dressed in uniform, after which he committed murder by shooting him in the head with the said firearm.

The court sentenced Golovyrtsev to 22 years of imprisonment in a strict regime colony.

It should be noted that Golovyrtsev was previously convicted of a number of serious crimes and was sentenced to 19.5 years of imprisonment in a strict regime penal colony.

The investigation and the court established that Golovyrtsev together with an accomplice, with the purpose of infringing on the life of law enforcement officers, planted an explosive device on the step of the stationary traffic police post located at the intersection of Kamennoostrovsky Prospect and the Malaya Nevka River Embankment, where it was discovered on March 5, 2015 by a platoon traffic police officer of the State Department of Internal Affairs in Saint Petersburg and the Leningrad Region. After that, not later than October 8, 2015, the intruders, with the purpose of infringing on the life of law enforcement officers, planted an explosive device in the area of the stationary post serviced by employees of separate battalion No. 4 of the Traffic Police Department of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Russia for St. Petersburg and Leningrad region, near the intersection of Bolshoi Sampsonievsky avenue and Kantemirovskaya street. On the same day, at about 3:30 p.m., they detonated this explosive device, causing explosive trauma to a local resident.