YUZHNO-SAKHALINSK, February 10 (RIA Novosti) – A gunman who killed two people and wounded six in an Orthodox church in Russia’s Far East on the weekend has confessed to the crime, investigators said Monday.
Officials say that the man was drunk when he burst into the Cathedral of the Resurrection on Sunday in Sakhalin Island’s main city of Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk, firing gunshots. A nun and a member of the congregation died at the scene, while six other people were taken to a hospital.
The man has not been named, but he has been identified as a local man born in 1989. He was detained at the scene of the shooting.
The attacker worked as a guard with a private security company. He has admitted his guilt, regional investigators said Monday.
A criminal case has been opened into multiple murder, a crime that carries a maximum punishment of life imprisonment.
The suspect is due to undergo a psychiatric evaluation.
Regional authorities have said they will pay 2 million rubles ($57,600) in compensation to each of the families of those killed in the attack, and 1 million rubles to those of the injured.
