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Crime

High-ranking police chief gunned down in Moscow

Darko Janjevic
November 2, 2019

Russian police have launched a manhunt after a senior police officer tasked with fighting extremism was shot dead in Moscow. The officer reportedly had already survived an assassination attempt in Chechnya.

https://p.dw.com/p/3SO1Z
Russia's federal investigators at the scene of the Moscow assassination of Ibragim Eldzharkiev
Image: picture-alliance/dpa/M. Grigoryev

A gunman killed two men in Moscow on Saturday, with Russian authorities confirming one of them was a high-ranking police officer from the southern state of Ingushetia, Ibragim Eldzharkiev. The second victim is believed to be Eldzharkiev's younger brother.

"The men suffered injuries and died at the scene," Yulia Ivanova, spokeswoman for Russia's Investigative Committee, told Interfax news agency.

Eldzharkiev served as chief of Ingushetia's anti-extremism center. He took office last year after his predecessor, Timur Hamhoev, was convicted of torturing detainees and extortion.

Read more: Protests in Ingushetia alarm Moscow

Murder on video?

After the killings, Moscow police launched a manhunt on Saturday. Authorities also said they were interviewing witnesses and reviewing surveillance footage from the site.

According to Interfax, a security camera captured footage of the shooter walking close to Eldzharkiev as he waited near the entrance of a building. The second victim, believed to be his brother, is seen parking a car. As the gunman fires at Eldzharkiev, his brother leaves the car, but is then also hit.

The shooter then fired "control headshots," said a source cited by Interfax.

Failed assassination in Chechnya

Russian news agencies reported that Eldzharkiev had been targeted in a failed attack in January this year, when unidentified gunmen fired at a car he was riding in. At the time, Eldzharkiev was returning to Ingushetia from the neighboring state of Chechnya, the site of two recent wars between Russian forces and Muslim militias.

The police officer was unharmed in the January attack, but three officers who were riding with him were wounded and one of them later died, according to sources cited by the TASS news agency.

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