# 2014 Moscow school shooting

On February 3, 2014, 15-year-old high school student Sergey Gordeyev opened fire at School No. 263 in Otradnoye District, Moscow, Russia, killing a teacher. Gordeyev then took 29 students hostage, killed one policeman, and injured another. Later on, he surrendered to the authorities. It is the second reported school shooting in Russia's modern history.

## Shooting

At around 11:40 A.M., Gordeyev, concealing his weapons with a bag and fur coat, went to his school armed with a Tikka T3 and a small-caliber rifle Browning SA-22 which belonged to his father, a police colonel. He threatened the security guard and went to his geography classroom, where he shot his teacher, 29-year-old Andrey Kirillov (Russian: Андрей Кириллов). After killing Kirillov, he then took the class of 29 students hostage. Gordeyev then shot at responding policemen in the school, wounding Warrant Officer Sergei Bushuyev, 38, and Senior Sergeant Vladimir Krokhin, 29; Bushuyev later died at the scene, while Krokhin survived a gunshot wound to the shoulder.
About an hour after the shooting first started, the Special Forces responded to the scene. Gordeyev initially called his mother before the Special Forces called in his father to negotiate with him. He initially spoke with Gordeyev on the phone for fifteen minutes before being brought into the school with a bulletproof vest to personally talk to him; thirty minutes afterward, Gordeyev released the hostages. At around 1:00 P.M., Gordeyev surrendered to authorities and was captured. A Russian report stated that a total of eleven shots were fired by Gordeyev during the shooting.

## Perpetrator

15-year-old Sergey Gordeyev (Russian: Сергей Гордеев, also spelled Sergei Gordeev; born October 4, 1998) was identified as the perpetrator of the shooting. He attended School No. 263. Two possible motives were given. According to the first, which was later rejected, Gordeyev opened fire for revenge against the geography teacher who was trying to interfere with his planned graduation with honors. Another version suggested that Gordeyev had an emotional disorder, yet he had had no previous apparent conflicts with either teachers or fellow pupils, although some described him as "strange". Sergei Gordeyev believed in the theory of solipsism—that the only life that truly existed was his own—and considered other people to be an illusion. Gordeyev's initial plans were to come to school, tell his classmates about his thoughts, and shoot himself, but he chose to shoot the geography teacher because "no one believed that he would shoot."
A medical examination confirmed that Gordeyev had symptoms of paranoid schizophrenia. The court sentenced him to involuntary treatment in a psychiatric hospital.

## Reaction

Politician Irina Yarovaya mentioned that the event might be linked to violent video games and recommended tighter gun control.
Politician Aleksey Pushkov suggested exposure to American culture might be to blame.
At a meeting with theater workers, Russian President Vladimir Putin said that such tragedies might be prevented by placing a greater emphasis on culture in children's upbringing, such as the theatrical arts.