Three People Killed in Shooting in Jyväskylä
More info from H.S...
News is coming in of a shooting in the Central Finland city of Jyväskylä that has left three people dead, all of them men.
Emergency services received a call about shots being fired just after 8 a.m. this morning, after which six police units and emergency vehicles were despatched to an apartment block in the Pupuhuhta district of the city.Inspector Arto Rajala reported that police had surrounded the crime scene and evacuated people from the surrounding apartments while awaiting the arrival of a canine unit and an armed swat team.
Calls to the apartment and shouts through the mailbox flap were not answered.
After an hour the specialist officers broke in and arrested those inside.
The bodies of two men, both shot, were found from the courtyard of the building when the police arrived, and a third man was found dead in the apartment. All had apparently died of gunshot wounds. Speaking at a press briefing in the late morning Insp. Rajala noted 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.An hour after the events, Rajala could not confirm details of whether there had been a firefight in the building, who the victims were, and whether the main perpetrator was among them. It later became clear that the gunman was among those killed.
A woman and two children were also found alive in the apartment. The children have been handed over to social workers.
Rajala was also unable to confirm whether the woman was the child’s mother, and there were no immediate details given of the other relationships involved or the ethnic background of the victims and others.
It is known that the apartment block contains some Finnish Roma families, but there has been no confirmation that this may have been an internal feud between Roma families.Rajala later told the Finnish Broadcasting Company that two weapons were located in the apartment and that a total of eight persons had been present. Responsibility will now pass to the National Bureau of Investigation, Finland’s central criminal police arm.
What is known is that all those involved are in police hands.
Those persons who were earlier evacuated from their homes will be allowed to return as soon as forensic officers have completed their work. They will be offered crisis counselling.
