Ombudsman: the death of a theft suspect will be investigated

He was accused of stealing four rolls of wallpaper worth eight thousand rubles and was killed during a special operation.

The tragedy occurred on the night of June 1 in the residential district of concrete goods on the outskirts of Yekaterinburg. According to sellers, a 27-year-old resident of one of the nearest houses named Vladimir took four rolls of wallpaper from the Leo store without paying for them, and when the guard caught up with him, he allegedly threatened him with a knife. To detain the suspect, they carried out a whole special operation, during which he was killed while shooting through a metal door of his own apartment. The father of the murdered man says that his son before the assault on the apartment told him that he paid for this wallpaper.

“He was alive at first”, - the father of the deceased said. - And then it all ended. Two bullets hit, or something. I said: "Call an ambulance, faster!" And no one moved. He was breathing! He did not think that this would happen, that they would shoot. He was stressed, sat, worried. He had such a look... Inwardly, you yourself know when something is about to begin, and you do not know what will happen".

- I would like to know and would like it to be known to the public why the special operation was applied. In my opinion, the balance here is uneven. This is not some kind of terrorist action. It is generally very difficult to call any action that required the intervention of some serious forces. At least, it seems so from the outside, Tatyana Merzlyakova told Interfax.

Law enforcement officials said the suspect in the theft allegedly offered armed resistance to law enforcement officers after they broke open the door, although judging by the photographs the shots went through a closed door. The father of the murdered man also said that he was asked by the police to confirm that his son allegedly took him hostage.

“What confuses me is that non-publicity, that closeness in which investigative actions are taking place today. Society must know what happened. Nevertheless, Yekaterinburg has always been distinguished by a fairly high level of work of our press services, which worked in the Investigative Committee and the Ministry of Internal Affairs. Therefore, we had to find out all this. Society, I would even say, requires this. Therefore, the sooner they tell society what article and how the criminal case has been instituted, the fewer questions will probably remain in connection with the incident”, - added Tatyana Merzlyakova.