On October 17, 2018, 18-year-old Vladislav Roslyakov, armed with a legally purchased shotgun and carrying homemade explosive devices, entered Kerch Polytechnic College in Crimea, Ukraine, and began indiscriminately firing at students and teachers.
Roslyakov also fired at computer monitors, locked doors, and fire extinguishers, before detonating a nail bomb in the school cafeteria.
The attack resulted in the deaths of 20 individuals, including 15 students and five teachers, and left 67 others injured, some critically.
The assault lasted approximately 15 minutes before Roslyakov ended the rampage by taking his own life in the college library.
The Kerch massacre remains the deadliest school shooting in the region since the 2004 Beslan school siege, in which 385 people were murdered and another 783 were wounded.
Sources close to Roslyakov told the press that his parents split up when he was 10. After sustaining a serious head injury and becoming addicted to alcohol, Roslyakov’s father began abusing him, his mother, and other relatives.
In school, Roslyakov exhibited a lack of interest and poor academic performance, had few friends, and developed hobbies centered around weapons and video games.
Roslyakov’s mother, a Jehovah’s Witness, limited his social activity, searched his pockets, and refused to allow him to go to the cinema or use a computer until he turned 16.
In 2015, Roslyakov joined the Kerch Polytechnic College to study to become an electrician.
Shortly before the shooting, Roslyakov expressed nihilistic views, stating disbelief in the afterlife.
Neighbors reported that he burned a Bible, along with his mobile phone and other books, on the eve of the attack.
The 18-year-old also discussed themes of ignorance, lack of purpose, mass shootings, and suicide on social media, indicating a troubled state of mind.
Roslyakov was known to engage in online communities dedicated to serial and mass killers, where he expressed admiration for Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold, the perpetrators of the 1999 Columbine High School massacre.
During the attack, Roslyakov wore a white T-shirt emblazoned with the Russian word “НЕНАВИСТЬ” (“HATRED”), resembling the attire of Harris, suggesting a possible emulation of the Columbine shooting.
