Denis Viktorovich Evsyukov(April 20, 1977, Moscow) - former major of the Russian police, in 2008-2009 head of the internal affairs department for the Tsaritsyno district. He gained notoriety when, on April 27, 2009, while intoxicated, he killed two and wounded seven more people in the Moscow Ostrov supermarket on Shipilovskaya Street.
Biography
As a child, Evsyukov was registered at the Moscow Psychiatric Dispensary No. 6, and in 1989 he was treated at psychiatric hospital, the discharge diagnosis was “pathological development of personality from a circle of mosaic psychopathy on an organic background.” I studied at school according to a special simplified program.
After school, he graduated from a vocational school with a degree in decorative and artistic painting restorer, stucco restorer, and attended the Young Paratroopers club and the hand-to-hand combat section.
In 1999, he graduated from the correspondence department of the Moscow Law Institute of the Ministry of Internal Affairs with a degree in law enforcement.
Since 1995 he worked in the police. In 1997 - inspector of the private security department at the Central Internal Affairs Directorate. Since 1998 - in the criminal police service of the Southern Administrative District of Moscow, where he began as an investigator and rose to the rank of head of the Tsaritsyno police department (2008). At the same time, he was a student of the 2nd faculty of correspondence education at the Academy of the Ministry of Internal Affairs.
The press claimed that Evsyukov was a nominee of the head of the Moscow Central Internal Affairs Directorate, Colonel General Vladimir Pronin, who was fired in connection with the events of April 27. Vladimir Pronin himself denied the fact of personal acquaintance with the Evsyukov family. Viktor Egorovich Evsyukov (father of D. Evsyukov, born in 1951), who himself had worked in the police since 1972, also denied the fact of his acquaintance with Pronin; “Denis achieved [everything] through his own work, and not as the media wrote,” his father said.
On the 5th anniversary of the shooting at the Ostrov supermarket (April 27, 2014), at the request of the Russian Agency for Legal and Judicial Information (RAPSI), the official representative of the Prosecutor General’s Office of the Russian Federation, Marina Gridneva, reported that Denis Evsyukov was being held in FBU IK-18 “Polar Owl”, from July 12, 2010. “During the entire period of serving his sentence, no complaints or appeals were received from him, including regarding the conditions of detention in the correctional institution, to the prosecutor’s office of the Yamalo-Nenets Autonomous Okrug and the Prosecutor General’s Office of the Russian Federation.” As a source in the correctional institution told RAPSI, Evsyukov is being held in a double cell with another convict. Currently he does not work and spends his free time mostly reading. He is reluctant to get along with other convicts, but maintains contact with relatives: Evsyukov’s father regularly comes to visit his son. Evsyukov behaves calmly; the colony staff characterize him positively.
According to data for 2016, Evsyukov is kept in one of three so-called “Euro-cells”, that is, in a cell with Euro-repair, equipped in all latest standards. He was placed in such a cell as a reward for his lack of penalties and comments from the colony administration. In a short interview with a journalist from Moskovsky Komsomolets, Evsyukov admitted that he is not against life-sentence prisoners being granted long-term visits with family and friends.
In the TV program “Honest Detective” on the TV channel “Russia 1” (broadcast on 06/06/2016), Evsyukov also shared with journalists earlier unknown facts regarding the crime he committed.
Family status
Divorced, no children. The ex-wife is an ex-member of the reserve lineups of the groups “Strelki” and “Strelki International” and a member of the group “Perestrelki” (the original name was “STRELOCKI”) Karina Reznikova (nee Karine Tonakanyan). On July 20, 2013, Karine Tonakanyan remarried show business representative Dmitry Vasiliev (Dj Diamond).
Murders
On the night of April 26-27, 2009, Evsyukov killed the Daewoo Lanos driver Sergei Evteev, who was giving him a lift, in front of house No. 38 on Borisovsky Proezd, and, walking through the courtyards to Shipilovskaya Street (Southern District of Moscow), entered the Ostrov supermarket. On the way to the supermarket, in front of him and inside the store, he opened fire several times, wounding seven people, one of whom died (cashier Elmira Turdueva). Before the police arrived, Evsyukov continued shooting at employees and customers, targeting young people of different sexes (the oldest was 27 years old). Evsyukov took hostages in the back room and intended to shoot them, but was neutralized by a police squad.
He opened fire near the Ostrov supermarket in Tsaritsyno and continued shooting indoors - concentrated and aimed. As a result, two people died and 22 were injured, from which many of the victims still cannot recover. The tragedy received wide publicity: television screens showed footage taken by a CCTV camera, which showed a man armed with a pistol methodically greeting visitors and employees. Gazeta.Ru recalls the events of that day.
On the night of April 27, 2009, the former head of the Tsaritsyno police department, Denis Evsyukov, after celebrating his birthday in one of the capital’s cafes, caught a car and went home. Having reached Borisovsky Proezd in the south of Moscow, the police major shot several times at Sergei Evteev, the driver who agreed to give him a ride.
Getting out of the car, Evsyukov headed towards the Ostrov supermarket. On the way, a major wearing a uniform police jacket over civilian clothes began shooting indiscriminately at passers-by, seriously wounding two people.
In the supermarket itself, Evsyukov continued to shoot: seven more store visitors received gunshot wounds. A supermarket cashier was fatally wounded. The police major also fired back at the arriving police squad, but was detained.
A criminal case was opened against the former head of the police department on charges of two murders and 22 attempted murders. On February 19, 2010, the Moscow City Court found Evsyukov guilty and sentenced the police major to life imprisonment. Evsyukov himself, it seemed, did not count on such a verdict. To the question of Vladimir Pronin, the head of the Moscow City Internal Affairs Directorate, who visited him the morning after his arrest, why he did not commit suicide, the policeman replied: “Let the court judge me, they will give me 25 years.”
However, the court gave a life sentence and ordered Evsyukov to pay compensation to the victims. Ten years later, the victims’ demands have not been satisfied, their representative Igor Trunov reported. The victims of Evsyukov's shooting continue to recover from the consequences of that April night: Luiza Salikhova was wounded in the face and needs plastic surgery, and Ilya Gerasimenko has a bullet under his heart.
Evsyukov himself admitted his guilt only partially - for those episodes that were recorded on the surveillance cameras of the Ostrov supermarket. At trial, he claimed that he did not remember the events of that night, although his testimony after his arrest contradicted later statements. According to the police officers who detained Evsyukov, the former head of the internal affairs department understood that he had committed a crime. In response to questions about the weapon - the Makarov pistol, which had been wanted since 2000 - the criminal replied that “for an operator, getting a barrel is not a problem.”
According to the victims, the police major did not look like a drunk man, but shot at people very confidently and calmly, aiming for the head and chest, as if at a shooting range.
“He told the police officers who detained him that if he had a machine gun, it would be more fun. He realized what he was doing,” said victims’ lawyer Irina Khrunova at the court hearing.
The expert who conducted the psychiatric examination, Andrei Grigorov, was unable to confirm the amnesia that the accused referred to.
No signs of drugs or alcohol addiction Evsyukova. The accused himself insisted that the employees of the Research Institute named after. Serbsky, who carried out the examination, were under pressure due to the widespread coverage of this criminal case in the press.
Positive references from his place of work did not help Evsyukov avoid a life sentence. In system law enforcement Evsyukov has worked since 1995, and in just ten years he rose to the post of head of the Tsaritsyno police department. Before the events of that night, Evsyukov’s colleagues and superiors characterized him “extremely positively”: he was considered a successful operative who was quickly advancing in career ladder. In the description of the Institute of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, which Yevsyukov graduated from in 1999, the police major was called “polite, smart, disciplined, erudite and psychologically stable.”
True, after the events of April 27, 2009, new details became known. For example, a severe reprimand for incomplete official compliance was discovered. Evsyukov's colleagues talked about how he boasted that he could kill a person - “if, of course, he deserves it.”
The victims' lawyer also said that Denis Evsyukov more than once robbed the Ostrov supermarket, which became the crime scene. Evsyukov took away the products without paying for them, and told the store employees that resisting a police officer was punishable by law. Among the court materials there was also a certificate from the place of residence of the former head of the police department, from which it follows that Evsyukov had a debt to the housing office and did not participate in the public life of the district.
The crime of the former police major sparked a discussion about the transparency of the mechanisms for selecting personnel in law enforcement agencies. The head of the Moscow City Internal Affairs Directorate, Vladimir Pronin, and three deputy heads of the Internal Affairs Directorate for the Southern District lost their posts. In 2011, a large-scale reform began, which led to recertification of personnel and personnel changes. Minister of Internal Affairs Rashid Nurgaliev explained the Yevsyukov case with the personnel crisis in law enforcement agencies in the nineties: experienced officers were replaced by untrained personnel, who were often hired without a medical examination and proper professional training.
Ten years after the tragedy that happened in the south of Moscow, Denis Evsyukov is serving a life sentence in the Polar Owl, a colony in the Yamalo-Nenets Autonomous Okrug.
Recently, the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) accepted the complaint of Evsyukov and his parents, concerned about the remoteness of the colony from Moscow. Before appealing to the ECHR, the Evsyukov family tried to appeal the decision of the Moscow City Court to higher authorities, but was refused.
Like other lifers, Denis Evsyukov will be able to ask for parole only 25 years after serving his sentence. At the same time, in Russian practice, cases of parole of life-sentence prisoners are unknown. Lawyer and member of the expert council of the all-Russian organization “Officers of Russia” Pavel Lapshov told RIA Novosti that the only decision on parole was overturned on appeal.
In September 2009 The Nagatinsky Court of Moscow refused to satisfy two claims for compensation for damage from the actions of D. Evsyukov, which were filed by Luiza Salikhova and Ilya Gerasimenko. The court found that claims should be brought against D. Evsyukov, and not against the Ministry of Finance of the Russian Federation, the Federal Treasury and the Moscow Department of Finance, since the policeman was not on duty at the time of the crime.
December 22, 2009 The Moscow City Court began consideration of the merits of the criminal case of Major D. Evsyukov, born in 1978. At the request of the prosecution, the case was tried by a panel of three professional judges, rather than a jury. The process took place in the open.
December 27, 2009 The Moscow City Court rejected the petition of the victims in the case of Major D. Evsyukov, who asked to call as witnesses the head of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, his ex-deputy, now senator Alexander Chekalin and the former head of the Internal Affairs Directorate of the South Administrative District Viktor Ageev.
December 28, 2009 D. Evsyukov partially admitted his guilt in the murder of people in the capital's supermarket in episodes that were recorded by surveillance cameras installed in the store.
January 29, 2009 The Savyolovsky Court of Moscow upheld the claim of the former head of the capital's police department, Vladimir Pronin, against lawyer Igor Trunov and decided to recover 4.5 thousand rubles from the human rights activist. compensation for moral damage. The court found the information posted by I. Trunov in his open circulation to the President of the Russian Federation.
In the text of the appeal, the lawyer noted that V. Pronin was friends with the family of the ex-head of the Tsaritsyno police department Denis Evsyukov, allegedly lobbied for his interests, was present at his birthday, where he quarreled with him, which could provoke him to commit a crime. In addition, according to the court's decision, I. Trunov is obliged to publish a refutation of his statements. According to the lawyer, the disputed text was not about undermining the authority of the police, it only put forward hypotheses about why D. Evsyukov committed murder of people in a Moscow supermarket. At the same time, I. Trunov noted that the information that V. Pronin was present at D. Evsyukov’s birthday and was friends with his family cannot discredit the former head of the Moscow Main Internal Affairs Directorate.
February 2, 2010 D. Evsyukov’s father stated that his son does not remember the events of that terrible night. He believes his son was in a state of "darkness." He said: “Dad, I don’t remember anything” and asked for forgiveness.
He also denied allegations that D. Evsyukov was appointed to a leadership position through cronyism, and that his father had friendly relations with the former head of the Moscow Central Internal Affairs Directorate, Vladimir Pronin. V. Evsyukov stated that he was not personally acquainted with the former head of the capital’s police, and his son sought the position of head of the internal affairs department “through labor and sweat.”
In addition, Evsyukov Sr. stated that his son did not have mental disorders, however, he was observed by a neurologist due to a concussion received in childhood.
During the hearings that took place in the Moscow City Court, the defendant’s wife, Karina Evsyukova, stated that before going to the supermarket, her husband stood in front of the flowers and seemed to be talking to them. After that, he put on his old uniform over his civilian clothes and left home.
February 3, 2010 in court, the testimony of V. Pronin was deserved, from which it follows that, after the incident in the Ostrov shopping complex, the former head of the Moscow Central Internal Affairs Directorate personally inspected the crime scene and visited D. Evsyukov in the pre-trial detention cell, where he asked him a number of questions regarding the major’s actions. During the conversation, the detainee began to cry when he heard about the victims of the shootout.
The ex-head of the capital's police department himself could not attend trial due to the surgery he had undergone. According to representatives of the state prosecution, V. Pronin did not appear when summoned to court and provided a certificate stating that he was under inpatient observation in the hospital after surgery.
February 4, 2010 D. Evsyukov apologized to the police leadership for being the reason for “negative statements” about law enforcement agencies.
In addition, the major expressed condolences to the relatives of those killed and apologized to the victims. “I understand perfectly well what it is like for people who lose loved ones,” D. Evsyukov said in court.
February 9, 2010 D. Evsyukov stated that he could not explain where he got the non-service pistol PM, which is wanted.
Considering his 9 years of experience in the criminal police, according to the major, he would have been smart enough not to keep a weapon with such a history. He also said that his actions were not intentional.
D. Evsyukov said that work as head of the internal affairs department was quite difficult emotionally, but noted that he did not want to arouse pity for himself. “We should have treated ourselves more carefully,” the major concluded. According to D. Evsyukov, he is very ashamed of what happened as a law enforcement officer who has been defending the constitutional rights of citizens for 14 years.
In addition, the major refused to answer questions from Igor Trunov, who represents the victims in this case, citing the right not to incriminate himself, which is given by Article 51 of the Constitution of the Russian Federation and the human rights activist’s personal hostility to the accused.
The suspect stated that he was not hiding anything and, if he could, long ago “gave truthful testimony, which would probably have come to light at the stage of the investigation.”
The accused also stated that the conversation between him and the former head of the Moscow Main Internal Affairs Directorate, Vladimir Pronin, was in a completely different vein than what was presented in the general’s investigative testimony. According to D. Evsyukov, he did not talk to V. Pronin about suicide. However, the major told the Colonel General that he did not remember everything that was happening and was not ready to explain what happened.
D. Evsyukov said that, in addition to the conversation, there are other “distortions” in the materials of the criminal case. For example, he asked for a conversation with V. Pronin in a separate room and “not in front of everyone.”
February 10, 2010 During the hearings, Andrei Grigorov, a member of the commission of the Serbsky Center, which conducted a psychological and psychiatric examination of the major, stated that neither the investigators nor public opinion exerted pressure on the doctors.
According to the doctor, the results were made on the basis of the facts presented in the criminal case and the results of clinical studies of the major’s psychological state. Previously, the commission recognized D. Evsyukov as fully sane.
February 16, 2010 Information appeared in the media that D. Evsyukov began shooting at the Golden Time restaurant, from where he went to the Ostrov supermarket on Shipilovskaya Street in Moscow, where he carried out a massacre. “None of the witnesses reported this fact to the police, but for some reason they were in no hurry to repair the two bullet holes in the cafe either,” writes Moskovsky Komsomolets." Does this mean that new official evidence has appeared in the major’s case, the newspaper does not clarifies.
From the words of witnesses, it previously became known that at Golden Time D. Evsyukov talked with an unknown person for about 10 minutes, after which he began to behave inappropriately and fell several times. The major himself states that he remembered the events in the cafe only thanks to the materials of the criminal case.
These facts came to light after the day before, a case was opened against the former manager of Golden Time, Viktor Gromyko, for illegal entrepreneurship and he was put under house arrest.
On the same day, February 16, the debate between the parties in this criminal case began in the Moscow City Court. The representative of the state prosecution, prosecutor Amalia Ustaeva, demanded a life sentence for D. Evsyukov, saying that there were no mitigating circumstances in the criminal case of the former head of the Tsaritsyno police department.
According to the prosecutor, the fact that D. Evsyukov himself does not remember anything about the events of that night is not true. “In any case, this does not relieve him of responsibility,” said A. Ustaeva.
February 17, 2010 D. Evsyukova’s lawyer Tatyana Bushueva asked the court to reclassify most from 22 episodes of attempted murder to malicious hooliganism, committed in a state of “twilight consciousness.” In her opinion, D. Evsyukov could not commit premeditated murder, since he did not know the victims and had nothing against them. In addition, the lack of intent to kill the seven victims, according to the lawyer, is proven by the fact that although D. Evsyukov shot at them, but, having wounded them, did not try to finish them off.
February 19, 2010 A panel of three professional judges of the Moscow City Court found the former head of the Tsaritsyno police department, 30-year-old Major Denis Evyukov, guilty of all charges and sentenced him to life imprisonment to be served in a special regime correctional facility without the right to parole.
A new unexpected twist has appeared in the judicial investigation into the massacre carried out by Major Denis Evsyukov.
One of the witnesses was taken to the courtroom in handcuffs. This is operative of the Zyablikovo Department of Internal Affairs Roman Potemkin. On the night of April 26-27, he was in the Ostrov supermarket and participated in the arrest of Yevsyukov. It was he who knocked the gun out of the killer major's hands.
During the investigation of the Evsyukov case, Potemkin himself was caught in a crime - he is accused of extortion.
As Life News already reported, today the ex-chief of the capital’s Main Internal Affairs Directorate, Colonel General Vladimir Pronin, did not appear in court. As the state prosecutor stated, the general was summoned to court as a witness, but was unable to come to the hearing because he is currently undergoing treatment, and yesterday, according to his assistant, he was completely unconscious.
Pronin's testimony was read out without his participation. The general told investigators that that night he received a call at about 1.00 am, telling him what the head of the Tsaritsyno police department had done. An hour later he was already there, looked at the surveillance camera records, and walked along the entire route of Evsyukov. "When I saw him, he said that it was an honor for him to meet me. I told him that he had shot about three people, to which he began to cry and explained that he had a difficult relationship with his wife and father-in-law."
The general asked Evsyukov if he understood what would happen to him now. To which the major replied: let him be tried, they say, he will get 25 years.
The day before, his father and wife were summoned to court in the scandalous case of the murderer major, who shot nine people.
If during the father’s testimony, the major who carried out the massacre in the supermarket was looking at the floor or to the side, now all his gaze is turned only towards his wife. During these nine months, Karina has changed a lot: she dyed her hair and cut her hair. At first no one even recognized her.
We drank a little that day,” said Karina. - Everyone was cheerful. I found out about the celebration a day before and arrived 40 minutes late. Denis was excited about this. After the celebration in Avignon, we went to Golden Time, there were two more couples sitting there, I don’t remember their names. There Denis seemed somewhat lethargic, although he only drank a glass. A man approached him, they talked, after which Denis went to the toilet. On the way he fell. We picked him up and I suggested we go home.
According to Karina, they were driving in her car (despite having drunk). When we arrived home, Evsyukov stomped right over the gifts and went into the toilet with his shoes on.
And then I heard some muttering. “I went into the room, and he was talking to the flowers,” Karina said. - Then he got dressed and left. I called my parents and we started looking for him in the nearby yards. They were very worried about him: he was green and pale...
Some time later, Karina received a call from Evsyukov’s friend, Maxim Glukharev (head of the criminal police at the Tsaritsyno police department), and said that her husband had been detained.
“I was shocked,” says Karina. - Then they called an ambulance for me. Only now have I come to my senses. IN Lately Denis was very tired and withdrawn. I slept restlessly, woke up, rubbed my calves, kneaded my hands...
According to Karina, her husband made no complaints about her career in the Strelka group.
“I can’t explain what happened,” Karina said in court. - Looking at the video, I see not my husband, but someone else in his body. I want to express my condolences to all those who suffered. This is grief for us. Please forgive me if this is possible.
The court also asked Viktor Evsyukov to tell about the day when, after celebrating his 32nd birthday, his son Denis went to the supermarket to shoot people.
This was an achievement for our family,” said Viktor Evsyukov. - His son’s promotion is his merit. We are not familiar with Pronin (former head of the Moscow City Internal Affairs Directorate - Ed.). Denis achieved everything through his own hard work. And what happened... It's a shock to me. Until now, despite all the evidence, it is difficult for me to realize and believe that this could happen. That day I called my son, but he hung up. When I got through, my son was saying something incomprehensible, I couldn’t understand where he was or what was wrong with him.
Evsyukov’s father also spoke about his son’s wife, because of a quarrel with whom he allegedly carried out the massacre.
Karina and Denis have lived together since the days when she was in the Strelka group,” says Viktor Evsyukov. - He worked seven days a week, but they lived without quarrels. Loved each other. After some time, Karina filed for divorce: it’s hard to live with a man who works almost 24 hours a day. She couldn't stand it...
According to the father, his son had health problems.
Denis was injured as a child. We were relaxing in nature, he fell from the bungee and hit his head,” said Viktor Evsyukov. - After that he had constant headaches. As for his character, yes, he could flare up, he is very demanding of himself and others. According to his wife, that day Denis became ill in a club where he went with his wife and friend after celebrating his birthday. There he fell twice. During the first date, my son told me: “I don’t remember anything, forgive me!” The only one possible reason Denis’s behavior, in my opinion, is a clouding of reason. Yes, he is guilty, but he doesn't remember anything.
After all this speech, Denis Evsyukov took the floor. As it turned out, in order to apologize to his father, he asked to forgive him for discrediting his family name.
Let us recall that at previous hearings the court considered as evidence of a crime a video of how the former head of the capital’s Tsaritsyno police department shot 9 people in a supermarket in the south of the capital. Evsyukov himself, as soon as footage of the cashier’s murder flashed on the screen, lowered his head and sat there until the very end of the broadcast of the videos.
Evsyukov’s best friend, the former head of the criminal police department of the Department of Internal Affairs in the Tsaritsyno district, Maxim Glukharev, spoke about the accuracy of his former boss.
Denis Evsyukov always hit the target during shooting, Glukharev told the court.
The prosecutor asked the witness whether Evsyukov played computer games. Glukharev answered in the affirmative. He admitted that he had seen Evsyukov playing a computer game.
It is possible that it is precisely because of the obsession with computer games and the impact of these fun on the psyche will further build the major’s line of defense.
Another one was announced earlier scandalous detail in the Evsyukov case.
Former deputy head of the Internal Affairs Directorate of the South Administrative District for personnel, Evgeniy Afanasyev, said that the major, at 32 years old, was not ready for the position of head of the Internal Affairs Directorate.
“We have a shortage of personnel,” Afanasiev answered the prosecutor’s question. - It was necessary to change the leader. And Ageev (former head of the Internal Affairs Directorate - Ed.) decided to appoint Evsyukov. Since he has excellent characteristics, he is from the family of a policeman, he has no penalties, many awards.
However, despite his unpreparedness to take office, he had many awards.
At previous meetings, the victims also managed to tell a lot of interesting things. Thus, one of the employees of the Ostrov supermarket, where Evsyukov carried out the massacre, recalled that the hostages wanted to pay off the major with money, but he replied that he did not need that, but to “smear his brains on the wall.” At the same time, he demanded that the most beautiful of the hostages be given to him. Fortunately, the police arrived in time and freed the prisoners.
