Emergency Incident: Gunshots Heard During School Football Championship in Lori Province

On April 18, an emergency incident occurred in Lori Province. The Tumanyan police department received operational information that around 1:00 PM on the same day, gunshots were heard during an intercommunity school football championship at the stadium in Tumanyan (formerly the village of Dzaghidzor), according to shamshyan.com.

According to the source, Tumanyan police, acting on hot leads, discovered that a 33-year-old local resident, Varsham Hovsepyan, had an 'unfounded' argument with a group of people present at the event (the identities are being clarified), responded emotionally to comments from those present, and exhibited cynicism, as well as attempted to assert his superiority by loudly hurling sexual insults at various individuals for about 20 minutes. Afterward, he briefly left and returned to the stadium, where he fired two shots into the air with a double-barreled hunting rifle, thus intentionally and grossly violating public order and displaying blatant disrespect towards the participants of the football championship.

The police are taking necessary measures to identify witnesses of the incident and to find Varsham Hovsepyan along with the weapon used in the crime.

It was revealed that residents of Tumanyan witnessed the incident, including 35-year-old Araksya T., 42-year-old Kristine M., 59-year-old Gohar A., and 31-year-old Sirarpi E., who works in the Tumanyan municipal department as a second-tier specialist in cultural affairs.

It was also discovered that during the incident, V. Hovsepyan threatened those present to not leave, claiming he would return and kill everyone. He also physically assaulted several members of the football team from the village of Martz.

The police are conducting necessary operational-investigative measures to identify the victims of the incident. The Tumanyan police department's investigative unit is preparing materials regarding the fact.