In a fit of medieval-minded madness, a drunken man in southern Russia attacked police officers with an ax and a pitchfork, prompting them to shoot him dead, investigators said on Tuesday.
The troublemaker, whose name was withheld, began his debauche in a village in Krasnodar region by threatening to shoot dead his wife and mother-in-law with a hunting rifle, the Investigative Committee said.
A police patrol arriving at the scene discovered that the women managed to snatch away and unload the gun, but were not able to calm the man down, who resisted arrest by threatening the officers with an ax, the committee said on its website.
Police fired in the air repeatedly to stop the man, who instead added a pitchfork to his arsenal, charging at the officers with the farm tools in his hands, the report said.
One of the officers eventually wounded the man in the leg, but even that did not stop his pitchfork charge. Another officer then shot him in the stomach, killing him on the spot.
A mandatory check into the officer’s actions was launched.