Man shoots five people dead for ‘making too much noise’ amid coronavirus lockdown

A doctor’s husband shot five people dead for making too much noise outside during the coronavirus lockdown in Russia, police say. 

Anton Franchikov, 31, berated a group of people from his balcony before grabbing a hunting rifle and opening fire when they came inside. 

The group of four men and one woman were killed when they entered the block of flats, police say. Reports say the female victim was pregnant.  

A local official linked the mass shooting to tension caused by the public health lockdown.

Franchikov had objected to noise on the street waking his baby when people were supposed to be isolating at home, said police. 

The suspect confessed to three killings, saying he has no recollection of the other two. 

Franchikov, a non-medical hospital worker, who was apparently on paternity leave, was detained in Yelatma, a settlement in Ryazan region with a population of 3,100.

The dead were named as married couple Yevgeny and Kristina Tabunov, aged 24 and 22, as well as Ilya Kondrakov, 26, Viktor Kapitanov, 24 and Maksim Ukhov, 31.

‘He [Franchikov] tried to escape, but he didn’t make it, and was stopped by the police,” said a law enforcement spokesman.

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Local administration head Grigory Danilov said, “This was a conflict between neighbours which developed into a shooting.”

“They exchanged words and he ended up picking up a rifle.

“The second week of quarantine plays badly on people’s psychology. People miss having communication,” he said.

The official added: “I cannot say that he is a stupid or a sick man. I know that he is a married man, he has children.”

“They are just an ordinary young family,” the official said.

His wife Svetlana, 27, a GP based at a local hospital, was interrogated over the incident by the Russian Investigation Committee.

She was in the bathroom during the massacre and did not know about the shootings, she says. 

Under Russia’s self-isolation rules, people are supposed to remain at home, and are official on an enforced holiday ordered by President Vladimir Putin.

Investigators were checking claims that the suspect had a history of domestic violence and posting extreme material on social media.