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On 17 October 2018, a bomb attack and school shooting occurred in the dining room of Kerch Polytechnic College in Kerch, Crimea. The school is attended by students aged 15 to mid-20s.^[4] 19 people died and 54 were injured, 12 of them critically.^[5]^[6]^[7]^[8]

Incident[edit]

The shooter, Vladislav Roslyakov, legally purchased the gun on 8 September. He bought the ammunition at a gun shop on 13 October.^[9]

Several witnesses described a gunman walking up and down the halls, and firing randomly at classmates and teachers until he ran out of ammunition. A bomb was also reportedly detonated, with local law enforcement reporting that they had disarmed more explosives on the campus.^[10] A survivor of the incident told the state RIA Novosti news agency that the shooting lasted for over 15 minutes.^[11]

The director of the college, Olga Grebennikoba, said that the gunman detonated an explosive device in the school's cafeteria, and then fired indiscriminately at students and staff.^[2] Statements on the town's website claimed the explosion occurred on the first floor while the shooting occurred on the second.^[12] A student witness recounted to reporters: "My friends and I were standing outside. Then there was an explosion, all the windows blasted out." Another said: "People were just being shot at the exit. Those who ran out were simply shot from point blank range."^[13]

Footage from students' phones was uploaded by news media and students after the attack.^[4] It was initially claimed that the blast was a gas explosion, but it was later confirmed that it was a combined bombing-shooting attack.^[14] State television channel Rossiya-24 reported that 200 military personnel had been sent to the location.^[15]

Victims[edit]

Russia's National Anti-Terrorist Committee (ru) (NAK^[16]), released a statement in which they specified that most of the victims were teenagers.^[15] According to the Investigative Committee all the victims died of gunshot wounds, and the Crimean Health Ministry reported that 37 people had been hospitalized.^[2]

Perpetrator[edit]

Early reports said the attack was perpetrated by a fourth-year student of the college, who later killed himself on the second floor of the building.^[17] The reports were soon confirmed by the NAK, that stated that the student in question was 18-year-old Vladislav Roslyakov (Russian: Владислав Росляков).^[18] The NAK initially called it an act of terror, but later reclassified the crime as mass murder.^[19]

There are suggestions the fourth-year student had developed a hostile attitude to the college. Russia's RBC TV interviewed a friend who said Roslyakov "hated the technical school very much" and had vowed "revenge" on his teachers.^[14] Surveillance footage of the incident captured Roslyakov, carrying a shotgun and wearing black pants and a white tee-shirt.^[10]

Aftermath[edit]

Russian President Vladimir Putin described the attack as a "tragic event" and offered his condolences to the victims' families while attending a conference in Sochi with the Egyptian President Abdel-Fattah el Sissi.^[20] Prime Minister Sergey Aksyonov announced that there would be three days of mourning in Crimea. The speaker of the regional parliament Vladimir Konstantinov announced that the families of the victims would receive financial compensation, with preliminary discussions suggesting the payments would be 1 million rubles (17140.9 United States dollars) from the federal and local budget to the families of each victim.^[15]

Since Ukraine does not recognize the March 2014 annexation of Crimea by Russia and sees Crimea as its teritory^[21]^[22] the Prosecutor General's Office of the Autonomous Republic of Crimea initiated criminal proceedings under the article "act of terrorism" investigating the attack.^[21] Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenkoexpressed condolences to the victims he described as Ukrainian citizens.^[21]