Law-enforcement authorities in Gyumri are looking into a weekend gunfight in a central city place that left at least six people wounded.
The shootout in Armenia’s second largest city took place at around midnight Saturday and allegedly followed an argument between two groups of individuals. No motives for the incident were immediately clear.
Two of the four hospitalized men reportedly had gunshot wounds, the others had stab wounds. Doctors said on Sunday two of the men were in serious condition.
Interestingly, a similar gunfight happened in the same street intersection in Gyumri in 2007. A son of the city’s then controversial mayor Vardan Ghukasyan was involved in that shootout in which two people were wounded.
Raffi Aslanian, the prosecutor of Armenia’s Shirak province, told reporters on Monday that cartridge-cases of bullets of three different calibers as well as cars and bats had been found on the crime scene.
A criminal case under penal code articles dealing with attempted murder of two or more people, armed hooliganism, illegal acquisition and possession of weapons has been instituted and several forensic examinations have been appointed, the official said.
“At this moment there are no arrests or suspects in the case,” Aslanian said in the afternoon, adding that the investigation had thus far established that a father and two sons were one side in the battle.
It is interesting that two men with alleged ties to the criminal underworld were shot dead in Gyumri in recent days. Police say they are looking into the possible connections between the crimes.
The latest Gyumri shootings and killings come days after three notorious crime figures were shot dead near a prison in Yerevan. Armenian media alleged that the killings were part of an ongoing gang war in the criminal underworld.
An Armenian police official said in the wake of those killings that “all theories are being examined.”