Security guard held for questioning after two men shot in Sofia
Two men were wounded by gunfire and a third was assaulted in an incident in Sofia’s Cherni Vruh Boulevard on December 7, the Interior Ministry said. A security guard had been held for questioning in 24-hour detention, the ministry said.
The two men, both shot in the leg, were in hospital in stable condition, the ministry said. The third man had fled and was being sought by police.
Pre-trial proceedings had been initiated and the Sofia City Prosecutor’s Office was investigating.
The ministry said that the guard who had fired the shots had said that he was “provoked”.
Bulgarian-language media reports initially said that the security guard was employed by Alexei Petrov, the former State Agency for National Security consultant formerly accused of serious organised crime charges – which he denies and the trial on which has been suspended – but Bulgarian National Radio said that its sources at the Interior Ministry had categorically denied that employees of Petrov were involved.
Petrov also has denied that his bodyguards were involved or that the incident had anything to do with his security. At the end of October, Petrov was in the headlines after a rocket-powered grenade was fired at a vehicle in which he was travelling, reportedly the second attempt to assassinate him in the past year.
BNR said that the December 7 shooting followed a verbal confrontation between the three men and security guards at an office building on Cherni Vruh Boulevard. After being asked what they were doing near the building, the men responded with verbal abuse and ran away, one of them allegedly producing a firearm, leading to the guard opening fire, reports said.
Reports said that the two men who had been shot had police records for car theft.
