Deadly Crimea college shooting dubbed ‘Russia’s Columbine’

The city of Kerch published a list on Thursday morning of the 19 people killed in a tragic Crimean technical college shooting, orchestrated by a lone teenage gunman.

The youngest of the victims was 15-year-old Sergei Stepanenko.

Crimean leader Sergei Aksyonov said late on Wednesday that 12 people were in an extremely serious condition.

Russian investigators on Thursday rushed to establish the motives of the teenage gunman, with the press dubbing the rampage “Russia’s Columbine.”

One of the girls who died, 16-year-old Darya Chegerest, known as “Dasha”, “tried to help others” as the attack unfolded but was killed, her fellow first-year student Viktoria Voiko told AFP.

An unnamed student told the Komsomolskaya Pravda tabloid she saw Chegerest die.

“I saw my friend Dasha get killed. She was running next to me, and then she fell and wasn’t breathing any more,” said the grieving student.

People laid flowers for the victims during a church service in Kerch | © AFP | Andrey PETRENKO

Ball bearing bomb

Relatives of another of the deceased, 16-year-old Alina Kerova, had been desperately searching for her the day before, knowing that she was in the building at the time, Komsomolskaya Pravda reported.

Kerova’s best friend, 17-year-old Viktoria Demchuk, is among the wounded, Komsomolskaya Pravda wrote. Her social media page shows a smiling girl with long dark hair.

Among the adults who died in the attack was a maths teacher at the college, 57-year-old Svetlana Baklanova, and her 26-year-old daughter Anastasia Baklanova who also worked at the college, handling finance and tax issues, reported Moscow-based daily newspaper Moskovsky Komsomolets.

Mourners joined in a church srvice for the victims of the college shooting | © AFP | STR

City authorities published a list of the 42 wounded in the attack, saying that two more had not been identified.

Health minister Veronika Skvortsova told journalists that most of those who died suffered gunshot wounds.

Many of those hospitalised were injured by an explosion that blasted metal ball bearings and other items into their bodies, ripping into organs.

Tearful victims brought candles for the dead | © AFP | Andrey PETRENKO

She said the explosion made “mincemeat” of the victims and several had limbs amputated.

Football fans

Komsomolskaya Pravda reported that two of the students who were injured are keen football fans, Nikolai Krutko and Valentin Kondrashechkin, both 18. It published a picture of them smiling at a match.

Krutko was shot in the shoulder and jaw and has shrapnel in his head, it reported.

One of the wounded, 16-year-old Natalya Kalinichenko, had her leg blown off, her friends told Komsomolskaya Pravda.

The grandmother and aunt of one of the wounded, a 16-year-old boy named only as Nikolai, told RIA Novosti state news agency that the second-year student was on a mechanics course and hopes to work in a rail or trolleybus depot.

He was wounded in the leg and stomach but was conscious, with medical personnel saying they were optimistic that he would make a full recovery.

A woman cries during a church service for the victims of the college attack in Kerch, Crimea, on October 18, 2018, after a student opened fire at a technical college in the Russian-annexed Crimea city of Kerch. – A teenage gunman shot dead at least 18 people and injured dozens before killing himself at a technical college where he was a student in Russian-annexed Crimea on October 17. (Photo by Andrey PETRENKO / AFP)

Motives being investigated

In the absence of an official version, speculation mounted on social media about what pushed 18-year-old student Vladislav Roslyakov to open fire on his fellow students.

Media published details about the killer, who officials say committed suicide at the end of his rampage.

Investigators of Russia’s Investigative Committee work in a college in Kerch, Crimea on October 18, 2018, after a student opened fire at a technical college in the Russian-annexed Crimea city of Kerch. – A teenage gunman shot dead at least 17 people and injured dozens before killing himself at a technical college where he was a student in Russian-annexed Crimea on October 17. (Photo by Andrey PETRENKO / AFP)

According to the Russian daily Kommersant, the teenager “grew up in a rather poor family” with a disabled father.

The paper said Roslyakov’s mother is a Jehovah’s Witness – a Christian organisation considered “extremist” and banned in Russia.

Russian television reported that his mother works as an orderly at one of the hospitals that treated victims.

Several media outlets made a comparison with the 1999 Columbine High School shooting in the US, which left 13 people dead.

They alleged photos of the Kerch killer circulating on the internet showed him wearing a similar T-shirt to Eric Harris, one of the Columbine killers.

The gunman “moved from room to room and, like an experienced special forces fighter, first threw a home-made grenade before going to shoot people,” Kommersant wrote.

It called the shooting an “unprecedented crime in Russia”, which has strict gun controls.

Unprecedented Crime

AFP journalists in Kerch, a city on the Crimean peninsula annexed by Russia in 2014, saw the college cordoned off by Russia’s National Guard, the army and the police.

Investigators of Russia’s Investigative Committee stand at the college entrance in Kerch, Crimea on October 18, 2018, after a student opened fire at a technical college in the Russian-annexed Crimea city of Kerch. – A teenage gunman shot dead at least 19 people and injured dozens before killing himself at a technical college where he was a student in Russian-annexed Crimea on Wednesday. (Photo by Andrey PETRENKO / AFP)

Locals brought flowers, candles and toys to the scene on Thursday morning.

“We all lost people close to us, the children of Kerch. We need to know the truth now,” Sergei Ivanov, who lives in Kerch, told AFP.

Aksyonov told journalists and relatives late on Wednesday that he had seen the body of the killer, whom he described as “not a Crimean, not even a person”, adding that Roslyakov had acted alone.

“What pushed this non-person to do this, I don’t know.”

He added that the fourth-year student had aroused no suspicion, saying teachers called him “peaceful.”

But he also confirmed earlier reports that the teenager had acquired a gun license legally and promised a transparent investigation with “no secrets”.

According to the RIA Novosti agency, security forces raided Roslyakov’s family home following the killings.

Security questions

Witnesses AFP spoke to on Wednesday reported they heard shooting and a “loud explosion” as well as people wounded by “shrapnel and bullets.”

Roslyakov’s body was discovered in the college library, according to authorities.

“The attack questions the state’s ability to provide security in Crimea, a new region” for Russia, the daily Vedomosti said on Thursday.

“No one can guarantee that this will not happen again,” the pro-Kremlin paper Izvestia said.

It noted that “there is still no good-quality psychology service in Russian schools, or a system of support centres for families.”

Russian President Vladimir Putin, who was in the Black Sea resort of Sochi, described the killings as a “tragic event”.

Attacks by disaffected teenagers at schools and colleges have hit the headlines recently in Russia. In January, a school student attacked a teacher and fellow students with an axe in Siberia and tried to set fire to the school building. In April, another student stabbed a teacher and a fellow student in the Urals Mountains and then set fire to a classroom.