2014 Moscow school shooting

On 3 February 2014, a school shooting occurred at School No. 263 in the Otradnoye District of Moscow, Russia. Sergey Gordeyev, a 15-year-old pupil, armed himself with a Browning SA-22 rifle and a Tikka T3 bolt-action rifle taken from his father's gun safe, and entered the school. He shot geography teacher Andrei Kirillov twice in the head, killing him, and held approximately 20 classmates hostage in the classroom.

When security forces responded, Gordeyev opened fire on officers who approached the classroom. Warrant Officer Sergei Bushuyev was fatally wounded after being shot while attempting to enter the room, dying from blood loss before medical help arrived. Senior Sergeant Vladimir Krohin was also shot and severely wounded, sustaining injuries to his chest, diaphragm, liver, stomach, pancreas, and inferior vena cava; he survived after treatment and was released in April 2014.

Gordeyev's father, Viktor, was called in by special forces to negotiate. Wearing a bulletproof vest, he entered the classroom and persuaded his son to release the hostages, which occurred around 12:48 p.m. Gordeyev was then taken into custody by SOBR fighters.

During interrogation, Gordeyev stated he had planned the attack to demonstrate his belief in solipsism — that only he existed and the world was an illusion — to his classmates, intending to commit suicide afterward. A forensic psychiatric examination conducted at the Serbsky State Scientific Center in April 2014 diagnosed him with paranoid schizophrenia and found him insane at the time of the offense.

The criminal trial began in September 2014 at the Butyrsky District Court. Both the defense and the state prosecution agreed Gordeyev was insane. On 3 March 2015, the court ruled that Gordeyev, being insane, had committed murder and attempted murder, and ordered him into compulsory psychiatric treatment. Victims' representatives challenged the ruling, and in August 2015 the Moscow City Court upheld it as lawful. However, in November 2015 the Presidium of the Moscow City Court overturned the decision and referred the case to the Moscow District Military Court for reconsideration. On 8 February 2016, that court again ruled Gordeyev insane and ordered compulsory psychiatric treatment, a decision the Supreme Court of Russia upheld on 5 May 2016. The victims' side subsequently filed a complaint with the European Court of Human Rights in September 2016.

Separately, civil proceedings resulted in Gordeyev and his parents being ordered to pay compensation to the family of teacher Andrei Kirillov. A criminal case was also opened against Gordeyev's father for negligent storage of firearms; he was granted amnesty in June 2015. President Vladimir Putin publicly responded to the shooting, and the incident prompted debate in Russia over school security, gun storage laws, and the influence of violent media on minors. Kirillov, Bushuyev, and Krohin were awarded the Order of Courage by presidential decree.