MOSCOW, March 22 (Itar-Tass) —— A drone of the Ministry of Emergency Situations is involved in the search for accomplices of a convict, who escaped by helicopter from a penitentiary in the Vologda Region, the press service of the regional main department of the Ministry of Emergency Situations told Itar-Tass on Thursday.
“A drone of the main department of the Ministry of Emergency Situations in the Vologda Region was involved in the search for accomplices of a convict, who escaped from the prison. Emergency specialists and policemen are searching through Vologda from the air,” the press service said.
Head of the Federal Penitentiary Service Alexander Reimer said earlier that the convict, who escaped from the penitentiary number 17 was detained 30 kilometres away from Gryazovets (47 kilometres south of Vologda) by a joint post of officers of the penitentiary service and police. “In the detention the convict put up resistance and was slightly injured. Now he is detained and brought to the nearby police station,” Reimer added.
The Vologda regional department of the Federal Penitentiary Service noted that the refugee put up armed resistance and firearms were used against him.
On the road leading to Gryazovets a man was detained, because the latter looked like the escaped convict according to the identity kit, spokesperson of the regional investigation department Natalia Letenkova said. “The police stopped the car for a check-up and the man inside the car opened fire from the pistol and the police returned the fire, so, the criminal was slightly injured and unarmed. He is being identified. The search for accomplices of the prison escape continues,” Letenkova said.
The convict, who lived in Cherepovets, was born in 1976. Shestakov was sentenced for murder and armed attacks to 24 years and already served a half of the term in prison. Habitual offenders are being mainly kept at the tough security penitentiary number 17.
The North-Western transport prosecutor’s office said earlier that the helicopter, which the Vologda aviation enterprise owned, was rented for a commercial flight from Vologda to the settlement of Irma (the holiday home) and back. “However, the brother of convict Shestakov and a woman went onboard the helicopter in Vologda on Thursday morning. Under the threat of firearms they made the pilot to fly to the penitentiary,” a source in the transport prosecutor’s office said.
When the helicopter was hovering over the penitentiary, a rope ladder was dropped from it and Alexei Shestakov was lifted onboard the helicopter. Then the helicopter landed near the settlement of Burtsevo, where all passengers left the helicopter.
Meanwhile, according to preliminary reports, the brother of the convict rented the helicopter.