Man surrenders to police after shooting and injuring two officers
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Two police officers who were injured by gunfire in the community of Karstula on Friday night are being treated at the Central Hospital of Central Finland. The two were shot while answering a call about a man armed with a shotgun. The suspect faces possible charges of attempted murder.
"The patrol had angels on its side", says Raimo Peltovuori, the police investigator in the case.
On Sunday, Peltovuori heard the account of the two injured officers, aged 40 and 26, concerning the events of Friday night.
The police had been told that a man was walking in the centre of the town with a shotgun slung on his back in front of a local grill.
When the two checked on a car in the parking area, a man with the shotgun rose from the back seat and started shooting. One of the officers was hit in the leg and the other was shot in the hand.
Only a moment before, the officers had put on protective vests, which they usually do not wear while on car patrol.
The 25-year-old shooter has been interrogated by police in nearby Äänekoski. He had surrendered to police voluntarily on Saturday.
The suspect is familiar to local police from previous run-ins with the law. The man seems to be familiar to most people living in the community of about 5,000 residents. The general perception was that the man is quite a pleasant person when sober, but a few drinks can make him belligerent.
Local people said that the man had threatened several passers-by with his gun. He was reportedly waiting for the implementation of a prison sentence for a previous crime.
Police tailed the suspect to a house about 20 kilometres away.
The police surrounded a house where they believed that the man was hiding. Help also came from police units in other nearby areas, and an armoured vehicle was supplied by a nearby military garrison.
An assault on the house after a tear gas canister was fired into it did not yield any results.
On Saturday, before noon, cars heading to the centre of Karstula were stopped, and news photographers near the police station were taken inside "for their own safety".
The police negotiated with the man about surrender, after he had contacted the police himself. He initially had his girlfriend with him, but she got out of his car before he reached the police station to give himself up.
Helsingin Sanomat
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| 8.1.2007 - TODAY |
 Man surrenders to police after shooting and injuring two officers
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