The 36-year-old man sitting in the back seat miraculously survived, although one pistol bullet hit him in the temple and another in the back of the head.
Two men fired their pistols inside the Mercedes pictured last May 6 in Turku. Prosecutor’s evidence/Varsinais-Suomen police
- Both men were armed with and used pistols. The car was shot at least five times.
- According to the prosecutor, they tried to kill each other.
- This claim is disputed by the men, although they otherwise gave a different account.
The bullets that hit the 36-year-old victim’s head were fired with a Soviet 7.62 caliber pistol. The 44-year-old man from Turku had hidden the gun in his car.
The seriously wounded younger man was operated on at the hospital and his life was saved. He lost his vision in one eye and the vision in the other eye also deteriorated.
In a quick situation, the 36-year-old had time to fire his 9-millimeter pistol three times. According to the prosecutor, he shot twice at the 44-year-old man sitting in the right front seat, but did not hit.
Then the 9mm pistol, modified from a starter pistol to a real handgun, jammed, because the shell got stuck in the cartridge case. According to the prosecutor, the 36-year-old man tried to fire his weapon even after this, but to no avail.
The back seat photographed shortly after the situation. The 36-year-old man’s starter pistol, converted into a real working pistol, can be seen at the top of the picture. Police/ Prosecution Evidence
No blood is visible on the front of the car. The 44-year-old’s Tokarev pistol can be seen in the leg compartment. Police/ Prosecution Evidence
In addition to the two men, there was also a woman sitting in the driver’s seat of the car.
Bullets pierced the car’s window, the roof in two places and the windshield in one place. The shooting took place around five o’clock on a weekday, so bystanders were also in danger.
The incident that took place on the edge of the Turku city area on the Tampere highway on May 6 ended with the arrival of a police patrol.
Police modeled the path of the four shots based on the damage to the car. However, the angle of entry of the bullet that hit the rear window could not be determined. Police/ Prosecution Evidence
Heavy charges for both
The trial of the case began in the District Court of Varsinais-Suomen on Wednesday.
The prosecutor demands that both men be punished for attempted murder and the corresponding prison sentence.
The prosecutor also presented secondary charges. The 36-year-old’s secondary punishment claim is aggravated assault, and the seriously wounded 44-year-old’s secondary charge is attempted aggravated assault.
For the 44-year-old defendant, the prosecutor proposes increasing the punishment due to the man’s violent crimes in recent years. The 36-year-old also has a criminal record. However, neither of the men has previously committed a murder or an attempted murder.
The 44-year-old is from Turku and the 36-year-old is also from the Turku region.
One bullet hit the driver’s headrest. Police/ Prosecution Evidence
Denies that he shot at
In their preliminary answers, both defendants denied attempted murder, as well as their secondary charges.
The 36-year-old defendant stated that the shots he fired did not hit the younger man, and could not have hit him, because his intention was not to kill him.
He had not aimed the shots at the other man.
The 36-year-old accused emphasizes that he used the weapon in an emergency situation by firing it three times. He used the gun in a situation where another man pointed a pistol at him from the front seat. He defended himself against a life-threatening attack.
It is possible that he was already seriously injured at the time of the shots.
Two bullets pierced the roof and one pierced the rear side window.
“Right to defend yourself”
The defense report of the 44-year-old is also partly similar, but opposite. This man also claims that he did not intend to kill or injure another man, but tried to defend himself – and succeeded in that.
According to the 44-year-old, the younger man had been threatening him with a gun from the back seat for a long time. In a situation where he realized that the other person was shooting, he threw himself into the footwell of the front seat for protection and “reflexively” found his gun under the car’s floor mat.
He fired his pistol twice without aiming the shots at anything. He was not even able to aim shots in that situation.
According to the 44-year-old, he had the right to defend himself. Without defending himself and the interference of the other man’s gun, he would probably have died. He also had to defend his common-law wife, who was sitting in the driver’s seat.
The bullets that hit the head were fired with this Soviet-designed pistol. Police/ Prosecution Evidence
Order to move out of Turku
According to the 44-year-old defendant, the background of the incident is a dispute between Roma families. The family of the 36-year-old man living in Raisio claims that he violated the dress code of the Roma.
The family demanded that he move out of Turku due to the violation, which he does not want to do.
According to the 44-year-old accused, he had already been threatened for a couple of months. His home had been broken into. On the day of the incident, he was forced to go on a car ride, during which a 36-year-old man pointed a gun at him.
The 36-year-old had been ordered to carry out the deportation. The 36-year-old’s relatives followed his car in their own cars, which was driven by his common-law wife.
According to the 44-year-old accused, the police did not properly investigate the background of the incident and the prosecutor was in danger when he claimed that he tried to kill his threat.
According to the 44-year-old, he does not know the 36-year-old man. However, he had met her in his childhood.
The District Court of Varsinais Suomen will give its verdict later. Iltalehti returns to the matter.
A starter pistol converted into a real weapon of a 36-year-old man. Police/ Prosecution Evidence
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