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Security guard placed in custody in wake of Far Eastern college shooting

The man, who was on duty in the college at the time of the incident, told the court he worked for the company without signing a labor contract

© Yekaterina Kiseleva/TASS

MOSCOW, November 19. /TASS/. The Blagoveshchensk city court placed Oleg Yermolov, a security guard from the Sirius-A private security company, in custody following a fatal shooting in one of the Russian Far Eastern city’s colleges on November 14.

"The court rules to choose custody as a measure of pretrial restraint for the defendant, for the period of two months, until January 14, 2020," the judge said.

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One dead, three injured as student opens fire in Far Eastern college

Yermolov, who was on duty in the college at the time of the incident, told the court he worked for the company without signing a labor contract.

"I did my best on the day it happened," he told the judge. "I evacuated people, I phoned the Emergencies Ministry."

"I don’t see any reasons for locking me up," he continued. "In fact, I’m not a security guard. I have no certificate, I did not even sign a labor contract."

The defense team will appeal the ruling within three days, Yermolov's lawyer Diana Budko said.

A 19-year-old student opened fire on his college mates with a hunting rifle in the Amur College of Building, Housing Maintenance and Utilities, after which he committed suicide. One of the students was killed, and three were hospitalized with gunshot wounds. Three criminal cases were opened; one for the murder of two or more people committed out of hooligan motives, one for the unsuitable protection of the building and one on negligence by the college authorities. A postmortem integrated psychological and psychiatric expertise will be carried for the student, which makes it possible to establish the psychological aspects of the person and the precise motives of the actions committed during the crime.

On November 16, the Sirius-A private security company’s director general, Sergei Andryushchenko was detained on charges of providing services that fail to comply with safety requirements and that led to the death of two or more people out of negligence. According to investigators, Andryushchenko assigned college security guard duties to a man who had no license and was previously convicted for a particularly grave crime.

Meanwhile, classes in the college resumed on Tuesday, a source in the educational facility told TASS. The building where the shooting took place, however, remains closed.

"Classes will proceed in normal regime today, but security measures have been stepped up," the source informed.

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