Shooting in Jyväskylä apparently involved internal disputes between Roma people

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As we reported and largely covered yesterday - Thursday - a shooting occurred in an apartment block in the Pupuhuhta district of Jyväskylä yesterday morning, leaving three people dead.
      Since yesterday, a few new facts have emerged, and it appears that the deaths of the three middle-aged men were a result of internal conflicts between some Finnish Roma people.
     
According to preliminary information, there were two gunmen in one of the apartments and the number of weapons in use was also two.
      After receiving a call about shots being fired just after 8 a.m. yesterday, the local emergency services despatched six police units and emergency vehicles to the address Pieles 2.
      Inspector Arto Rajala, who was in charge of the operation, reported that the police surrounded the crime scene and evacuated people from the surrounding apartments.
     
Based on the information received by Helsingin Sanomat, the police units found two men dead in the stairwell, one of them lying outside the door to the crime scene on the second floor and another on the third floor.
      At the same time, the police apprehended two Finnish Roma women with two children in the yard and a third woman in the stairway.
      One suspect remained in the apartment, but he did not answer the calls nor the shouts of the officers.
      When the police broke in an hour later, the suspect was found dead in the apartment.
      Speaking at a press briefing Insp. Rajala stressed that that the police had not been fully aware of how many persons were in the apartment at the time they broke down the door, or whether there would be an armed response to their entry. He admitted it was a calculated risk to storm the apartment.
     
At the time of the shooting, there were eight people in the apartment, including three men, three women, and two children.
      Rajala did not wish to confirm the relationships or the ethnic background of the victims and others involved. The children have been handed over to social workers.
      Detective Chief Inspector Raimo Peltovuori from the Central Finland Police Department reported that all adults who survived are in police custody and their participation in the events is currently being determined.
     
For investigatory reasons, no details are to be disclosed as yet. Not even the fact of whether there was an exchange of fire in the apartment or whether one of the shooters killed himself, the police report.
      ”More detailed information about the victims’ ages and their places of residence will be given out only after it is certain that the families have been informed of their deaths”, specified Detective Inspector Eila Koivuniemi.


Previously in HS International Edition:
  Three dead in Jyväskylä shooting incident (8.1.2009)

Helsingin Sanomat