Man who attacked Moscow synagogue was affected by computer games

The father of the arrested young man said that his son has never been a member of any religious or political organizations

Eight people have been hospitalized, four of them in severe condition, as a result of yesterday's incident in one of Moscow synagogues. The Rabbi of the synagogue situated in the city center told reporters that a young man attacked the parishioners during the evening prayers.

The assaulter was identified as a 20-year-old Muscovite Alexander Koptsev. When asked about the goal of his visit to the synagogue, the young man answered: “I came here to kill.”

”I heard screams during the evening prayers. When I left the service and ran to see what happened I saw a stranger running away from me. Then I saw two or three people down the corridor, all of them were bleeding,” the Rabbi said. A mentor of the synagogue managed to seize the assaulter. “I think the man was crazy,” the head of the Congress of Jewish Religious Organizations in Russia, Zinoviy Kogan said.

The massacre in the synagogue - photographs

The spiritual mentor of the synagogue also said that the attacker was not saying or screaming anything during the incident. The attacker has been arrested and delivered to the 83rd police department of Moscow, Interfax reports.

Alexander Koptsev's father said that his son was acting in the state of temporary insanity. “My son has never been a member of any religious or political organizations. I think that he could see all those Nazis, extremists and skinheads only on TV,” the arrested man's father said.

The father, also named Alexander Koptsev, added that his son was fond of bodybuilding and computer games. It became known later that the attacker's most favorite game was called “Postal.” It is a game about a postman, who suddenly loses his mind, grabs a knife, goes out into the streets of London and starts killing people.

The father of the arrested young man also said that he had noticed a book on his son's desk one day. “We hardly have any books at home. That is why I asked him what kind of book he was reading. He answered that the book was about Jews and how they sold Russia. He did not want to talk about the book with me,” the Kommersant newspaper quoted Alexander Koptsev as saying.

Alexander Koptsev Jr., wielding a knife, entered the building of the synagogue in the center of Moscow yesterday, at about 5:30 p.m. He man wounded eight people in the building, including a US citizen, an Israeli man and a national of Tajikistan. Four of the wounded individuals were hospitalized in severe condition.

The 20-year-old Muscovite male, who attacked the parishioners in the synagogue yesterday, was playing computer games a lot. It is not ruled out that the man has committed the crime in the state of temporary insanity because of the games.

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