Prosecutors asked a Moscow court to give a three-year suspended sentence to a high-ranking police official who opened fire in a dispute with security guards while drunk, a court spokeswoman said on Monday.
"Prosecutors have asked for a three-year suspended sentence with a three-year probation period," Lalita Darchiyeva told reporters.
Maj. Gen. Yevgeny Novikov, deputy head of the public order department in the Interior Ministry, got lost on February 5, 2010 while driving in an intoxicated state in an industrial district in Moscow.
Novikov, 54, stopped his Volkswagen Touareg and asked security guards at a local firm for directions. When the security guards were unable to help him, the general drew a handgun and fired in the air.
Security guards disarmed Novikov, but he managed to get to his car and escape the scene.
However, the guards informed police of the incident and the registration number of his vehicle.
Novikov was immediately arrested, but later set free. The gun-toting general was dismissed from police service in September 2010 by a presidential decree.
He is being tried on charges of hooliganism and illegal possession of firearms.
MOSCOW, May 23 (RIA Novosti)
