Several participants in the shootout in the Dagestan city of Kizlyar, as a result of which four people were killed, were detained by law enforcement agencies. The Minister of Internal Affairs of Dagestan, Abdurashid Magomedov, announced this on Wednesday. At the same time, the relatives of the victims again, as the day after the massacre, blocked the Caucasus federal highway on Wednesday - this time in the Tarumovsky district of the republic.

On Sunday, the press service of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Dagestan limited itself to short information about the bloody drama that played out in Kizlyar. “At about 13:10 in the city of Kizlyar, on Naberezhnaya Street, a scandal occurred between two groups of people, during which unknown persons fired shots from weapons of an unknown type. As a result of the incident, six people were taken to the Central City Hospital of the city of Kizlyar with gunshot wounds in various parts of the body, four of whom subsequently died,” the text of the message read. “A criminal case has been opened under Art. 105 part 2 (“Murder”) and Art. 222 part 2 (“Illegal trafficking in firearms”) of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation. Machine gun and pistol casings were recovered from the scene of the incident.”

According to local residents, the conflict, which later ended in a mass shooting, began in the morning. In the parking lot located near a four-story store and dry cleaner on Naberezhnaya Street and owned by a local businessman, one of the security guards of the head of the Kizlyar district, Andrei Vinogradov, parked his car. The owner demanded to vacate the parking lot, to which the security guard refused. The altercation ended in a fight, in which the advantage was on the side of the security guard. After some time, around 1:30 p.m., the brothers of the beaten businessman and the head of the district himself joined the conflict. The repeated trial, organized at the site of the first incident, suddenly escalated into an execution - Mr. Vinogradov’s guards opened heavy fire from machine guns and pistols at their opponents.

As a result, three of the six wounded - brothers Gazidibir, Osman and Magomed Gamzatov - died at the scene, their nephew Magomed Omarov died in the hospital on Monday.

On Monday, the situation in Kizlyar worsened sharply. In the morning, police officers were forced to block the section of the street on which the city and district administration building is located. Relatives of those killed - residents of Kizlyar and people from the village of Kvanada, Tsumadinsky district of the republic - blocked the Caucasus federal highway for four hours, demanding the resignation of the head of the Kizlyar district and the chief of the local police. The Republican news agency “Dagestan” disseminated Mr. Vinogradov’s commentary in the middle of the day. The head of the municipality expressed “sincere condolences to the families and friends of the victims.” “The events that took place cannot be called anything other than monstrous,” he said. “A domestic quarrel escalated into terrible bloodshed. Several families lost their loved ones. Such incidents are simply unacceptable." He also appealed to the republic’s law enforcement agencies with a request to “conduct a thorough investigation of the crime and punish the perpetrators to the fullest extent of the law,” the agency reported.

Only late in the evening, after lengthy negotiations, which included officials and representatives of the clergy from Makhachkala, was the highway unblocked.

However, the situation in the Kizlyar region continues to remain tense. The authorities have good reason to fear that the conflict will continue in the form of blood feud on the part of the surviving Gamzatov brothers. That is why special attention is paid to the incident in Kizlyar. On Wednesday, the Minister of Internal Affairs of Dagestan, Abdurashid Magomedov, made a special video message. He expressed condolences to the relatives of the victims and reported that four participants in the armed conflict had been detained, and three more were wanted. A group of the best employees of the Ministry of Internal Affairs has been mobilized to investigate the conflict in Kizlyar, the head of the department said. According to Kommersant, one of the shooters voluntarily came to the local police on the day of the murder, handing over two machine guns and two pistols, as well as ammunition for them. Three more security officers of the head of the Kizlyar region surrendered to the authorities on Wednesday in Makhachkala. Mr. Magomedov emphasized that he took the investigation under personal control and those responsible will be punished in accordance with the law.

At the same time, relatives and fellow countrymen of the victims, dissatisfied with the progress of the investigation into the bloody massacre, on Wednesday morning again blocked the Caucasus federal highway, this time in the Tarumovsky district of Dagestan. Without waiting for more decisive measures from the authorities, they chose for a new action a section of the highway north of Kizlyar, in the area of the village of Karabagly, which created much more inconvenience for drivers, depriving them of short options to bypass the blocked section.

Yulia Rybina, Makhachkala

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