Russian Court Jails Officer for Fatally Shooting Driver

VOA News
August 18, 2010 at 4:00 pm

A Moscow court has sentenced a former policeman to six years in prison for fatally shooting a snowplow driver during an argument about a traffic accident.

The court found defendant Anatoly Maurin guilty Wednesday of causing great bodily harm resulting in the death of a person in the incident on a Moscow street last December. It also ordered Maurin to pay $5,800 in damages.

Investigators said the officer and the snowplow driver got into an argument after their vehicles collided. They say Maurin fired his gun at the driver’s leg, causing heavy bleeding, before fleeing the scene and throwing away the weapon.

Prosecutors accused Maurin of being drunk at the time, while Maurin’s defense lawyer leveled the same accusation against the snowplow driver.

The driver’s death added to public outrage in Russia about aggressive or careless police behavior resulting in harm to civilians.

Some information in this story was provided by AP.