He was calm and polite: Neighbors describe the shooter at the TCC

The man who opened fire on employees of the Regional Recruitment and Social Support Center on Kosmonavtiv Street in Odesa on July 2 is an internally displaced person.

The shooter’s neighbors told this to an Intenta correspondent. 

According to them, he lived with his wife and two-year-old daughter and did not cause any trouble, unlike the previous tenants of that apartment, who were drug users. He was polite and always helped his neighbors. 

The reason for his aggression toward the TCC officers, according to his neighbors, may have been that he was nearly “detained”; he managed to escape home but was forced to leave his car and documents behind.

“Those TCC guys caught him once, and he ran away from them, running home barefoot, but he left his car somewhere on Varnenska Street, so he was angry at them, and no matter how much his wife tried to hold him back, he did it anyway,” a neighbor said.

The incident on August 2 began when members of the alert team spotted another man, who also saw them and started running away. The soldiers chased after him; he ran into the building where the shooter lives, but later ran out and was apprehended. It was at that very moment that the shooter ran out and attacked the TCC officers.

It should be noted that a playground where children were playing is located right next to the scene of the attack.

The shooting occurred around7:30 p.m. during a check of military registration documents. That same evening, law enforcement officers detained a 32-year-old man who, according to preliminary reports, fired a Flobert-caliber pistol at the servicemen.      

Кирило Бойко