Governor Oleksandr Bogomaz of the Bryansk region in Russia reports that a 14-year-old eighth-grader girl carried out a shooting at an academic gymnasium [i.e., a high school] using her father’s tactical-style shotgun, resulting in two deaths and five wounded.
“Two children were killed, one of them was the shooter. Five children were wounded, two lightly and three moderately,” Bogomaz wrote.
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All injured students were taken to the children’s regional hospital and are receiving necessary assistance. Emergency services are on site, investigating all circumstances of the event.
Bogomaz says that the shooter brought the firearm into the Bryansk educational institution from outside. Police photos of the weapon later revealed it to be a shotgun registered to the girl’s father, with only a pistol grip and no buttstock.
“The motives behind the crime and all circumstances are being established,” the Russian Investigative Committee said.
The Russian TASS agency, citing law enforcement sources, reports that a conflict with classmates is being considered as a primary motive for the shooting. According to the agency’s informant, “the girl entered the classroom and almost immediately began firing upon her classmates.”
According to Russian media outlet RIA Novosti, the shooting occurred at gymnasium No. 5, a secondary school in the city’s suburbs. Security forces surrounded the building and evacuated all schoolchildren.
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Another Russian media outlet RBC reports that the eighth-grade student brought her father’s firearm to school and fired it multiple times. Russian law enforcement notes that the metal detector frame at the school was turned off and not functional.
Russian State Duma Deputy Oleksandr Khinshtein reveals that the shotgun the girl used in the shooting was registered to her father. Khinshtein shared a photo of the weapon, indicating that the girl brought a 'Bekas-3' civilian shotgun to school, hidden in a tube.
The configuration of the shotgun, with only a pistol grip and no full-length buttstock, would classify it as a tactical/defensive weapon, not a hunting firearm.
Russian news agencies report that the girl’s father has been questioned, and the family’s apartment searched.
Some students describe the girl as “very strange,” with minimal social media presence and limited interaction with classmates.
Footage of the shooting at the Bryansk gymnasium has surfaced on social media, capturing the sound of shots and frantic attempts by children to secure classrooms.
Russia has tightened its already strict gun ownership laws following a series of school shootings between 2019 and 2021.
In May 2021, armed students in Kazan, Russia, broke into a school, causing at least nine deaths.
And last year in September in an Izhevsk school, 34-year-old Artem Kazantsev, a graduate of the school, returned to his alma mater and opened fire, resulting in 15 deaths, including 11 children. Additionally, 24 people were injured, comprising 22 children and two adults.
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