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Two wounded suspects from Moscow court shootout remain in critical condition — source

They were wounded in a shootout they initiated with three other accomplices

MOSCOW, August 2. /TASS/. Two suspects from the so-called GTA gang remain in hospital in critical condition after they were wounded in a shootout they initiated with three other accomplices in the Moscow Region Court on Tuesday, a source in a hospital told TASS on Wednesday.

"Two of the suspects remain in a hospital in the Moscow Region. They are in critical condition," the source said adding that both of them sustained gun wounds.

A convoy of two officers was escorting a total of five suspects form the GTA gang in an elevator of the court at about 2:00 p.m. on Tuesday, when one of the suspects assaulted an officer and began strangling him. The suspects eventually got hold of the convoy’s weapons and managed to leave the elevator on the third floor.

However, one of the convoy officers called for backup and a shootout erupted on the third floor of the court’s building between the suspects and law enforcers. As a result, three suspects were killed on the scene, two more were wounded, while one of the National Guards’ officers sustained a gun wound in a shoulder.

Two convoy officers also sustained multiple injuries and one of them was taken to a hospital.

Suspects from the so-called GTA gang, which was named after a popular video game, are charged with multiple murders of drivers on the roads of the Moscow Region and the neighboring Kaluga Region as well as in the Russian capital between 2012 and 2014.

In all, nine defendants from the criminal group, aka the GTA gang, are on the trial bench. They are charged with 17 murders, two attempted murders, banditry, plunder, illegal production and possession of weapons as well as with stealing documents. The trial began in 2016.