MOSCOW, January 29 (RIA Novosti) - A suspect in the murder of a regional parliament member was shot dead on Tuesday during an attempt to arrest him in the Russian North Caucasus Republic of Kabardino-Balkaria, the Russian Interior Ministry’s press service said.
Zeitun Boziyev has been on the federal "wanted" list since 2010. A spokesman for the Russian Investigative Committee, Vladimir Markin, said the man was also suspected of carrying out numerous attacks on police, servicemen and investigators.
Police earlier identified him as a suspect in the murder of Boris Zherukov, the head of the ruling United Russia party faction in the regional legislature and the president the Kabardino-Balkaria State Agricultural University. He was killed at his office in Nalchik on December 25, 2012, by two unidentified men who then fled the scene.
Boziyev is also suspected of murdering Kazbek Gekkiyev, a 28-year-old presenter at a state-controlled local TV channel, on December 5, 2012.
“At about midday on Tuesday, the North Caucasus Federal District’s anti-extremism office was informed that a suspected criminal was spotted in a computer room,” the ministry’s press service said in a statement. “Special forces surrounded the building, children were immediately evacuated from the room.”
When offered to surrender, the suspect “attempted to flee the building and fired several shots at special police."
“The man was killed when police returned fire. He carried a passport in the name of Zeitun Boziyev, born in 1982,” the statement reads.
No casualties among police or civilians were reported.
