Russian man gets 20 years for killing military police officer who tried to detain his deserter son
The Lipetsk Regional Court sentenced 63-year-old Alexey Zaitsev to 20 years in prison for killing a military police officer, the court’s press service reported.
He was found guilty of illegally possessing explosives and ammunition for firearms, of assaulting the life of a law enforcement officer, and of threatening violence against a government official. Zaitsev will serve the first three years of his sentence in prison and the remainder in a strict-regime colony. The court also ordered him to pay 2 million rubles to the deceased’s underage son.
Zaitsev was sent to a pretrial detention center in March 2026, days after the shooting near his home in the village of Shcherbinino.
The Russian business daily Kommersant reported that military police officers arrived at Zaitsev’s home on March 18 to detain his 35-year-old son, who had deserted his unit after more than a year of contract service and was wanted in a criminal case for going AWOL. Zaitsev refused to let the three officers inside, “cursing at them and threatening to shoot them.”
The next day, the officers returned with officers from the local Interior Ministry department. Zaitsev again began threatening them and got into a fight, according to reports, and officers restrained him and tried to enter the house. His mother and his son — armed with a hunting rifle — met them at the door, and the younger Zaitsev demanded that police release his father and leave.
After being released, the elder Zaitsev grabbed the rifle and began threatening the officers. As they walked toward their car, he shot one of them in the back. The wounded sergeant died. Two police officers knocked the rifle out of Zaitsev’s hands and wrestled him to the ground.
Zaitsev has admitted guilt, the court said.
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