On September 17, 2005, a resident of Armenia, Tomaz Amaryan, was killed in Nizhny Novgorod. Nizhny Novgorod residents Roman Lavrentiev and his friend Alexander Boytsov stopped two Armenians on the street and asked them to smoke. Having been refused, they began to beat the Caucasians, and then Lavrentyev caught up with one of the men, took out a knife and struck them 19 times. T. Amaryan died from his injuries in the hospital of the Sormovo region.