Russian MP Igor Redkin, 55, claims he thought he was targeting a bear when he killed a married dad-of-one who was collecting scrap metal from a rubbish tip to “earn money for his family”
Image: east2west news)
A millionaire Russian lawmaker who admitted shooting a dad claimed he had “mistaken him for a brown bear” – despite using a special optics rifle.
Igor Redkin, 55, a regional MP in pro-Vladimir Putin United Russia party, said he had been hunting to “save constituents” from bears in his village of Ozernovsk.
The fish tycoon, said to be one of the 20 richest state officials in Russia, was out scavenging a rubbish tip when he shot married father-of-one Andrey Tolstopyatov, 30.
The MP then left the scene but a dying Tolstopyatov – who was called his children’s “beacon of light” – managed to identify him as he lay fatally wounded in the abdomen.
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Image:
east2west news)
Redkin, who has a £13million fortune, has now been detained in a murder investigation.
He insists it was dusk and therefore mistook the man for a bear, despite using an elite £30,000 hunting rifle that has special optical sights to fire the fatal shot.
“I am ready to face the punishment, which will be determined by the court,” he said.
Confessing to shooting, he said: “I heard that a bear, from which local residents might suffer, was wandering in the rubbish dump.
“I took the weapon and decided to scare the bear away.
“At dusk I shot at the bear.
“Later, I learned that at about the same time a local resident was wounded in the area of the shooting and died in hospital.”
He pulled out of upcoming elections and suspended his membership of United Russia.
His lawyer Olga Struchenko clarified that the MP had scared away two bears and the fatal incident happened when he “saw a third”.
“He was sure that he was shooting a bear, there were no people in sight,” she said.
“It was only later that he found out that a man had been shot.”
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She admitted that “all the circumstances indicate that it was actually his bullet” that struck Tolstopyatov.
The victim’s wife Lyudmila, 26, said he had been “earning money for the family” collecting scrap metal when he was shot.
He was a father to their son, and a stepfather.
“He was the beacon of light for my children,” said the widow.
She heard about Redkin being involved in the shooting from the media and he had not offered his condolences, she said.