Man shoots dead pregnant woman, four neighbors for 'being too noisy' during coronavirus lockdown
A doctor's husband is said to have lost his temper and shot and killed five people, including a pregnant woman, for making too much noise outside his apartment during the government-imposed novel coronavirus lockdown in Russia.
The tragic incident unfolded after Anton Franchikov, 31, a non-medical hospital worker at a neuropsychiatric facility, lost his cool and berated the five people from his balcony, according to the Daily Mail.
When the group decided to confront him directly and started making their way towards his apartment, Franchikov grabbed his rifle and readied himself before opening fire on them all when they entered his home.
They were all declared dead at the scene and were later identified as married couple Yevgeny and Kristina Tabunov, aged 24 and 22, respectively, Ilya Kondrakov, 26, Viktor Kapitanov, 24, and Maksim Ukhov, 31.
Franchikov had allegedly tried to flee the scene after carrying out the massacre but did not get far before he was intercepted and detained. "He [Franchikov] tried to escape, but he didn't make it and was stopped by the police," said a law enforcement spokesperson.
When questioned, the 31-year-old is said to have confessed to three of the killings but claimed he had no recollection of the other two. He revealed he had been on paternity leave and had objected to the noise out in the street from the group waking up his child, who was sleeping.
A local official linked the mass shooting to the tensions that had arisen because of the public health lockdown put in place to slow the spread of the novel coronavirus in the country.
"This was a conflict between neighbors which developed into a shooting," said Local administration head Grigory Danilov to local media. "They exchanged words and he ended up picking up a rifle."
"The second week of quarantine plays badly on people's psychology," he continued. "People miss having communication." "I cannot say that he is a stupid or a sick man. I know that he is a married man, he has children. They are just an ordinary young family."
Franchikov's wife, Svetlana, 27, is a General Practitioner based at a local hospital and was also interrogated over the incident by the Russian Investigation Committee. She reportedly claimed that she was in the bathroom at the time of the shootings and was unaware of it.
Investigators are currently looking to tips that Franchikov had a history of domestic violence and posting graphic material on social media. A mass murder probe has been opened, with footage from his home showing forensic checks being carried out.
In the meantime, the 31-year-old has been detained in Yelatma, a settlement in the Ryazan region of the country with a population of a little over 3,000 people.
Russia imposed one of the most thorough lockdowns in the world in March, with all citizens advised to stay indoors except to buy food, medicine, and for a 100-meter walk with their pets. The country currently has over 5,300 confirmed cases of COVID-19, according to John Hopkins University's live-tracking dashboard.