Mika Muranen

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

This article or section needs copy editing for grammar, style, cohesion, tone or spelling.
You can assist by editing it now. A how-to guide is available. (March 2007)

Mika Kalevi Muranen (born 1971 in Kotka, Finland), back in 1994 a conscript, returned to the barracks in Hamina from a holiday on Sunday April 17 1994, stole an assault rifle from the barracks and escaped to his hometown Kotka.

On the next day, still dressed in army clothes, he went to the neighborhood where he lived and shot two of his neighbours, Reino Vulkko, 53, and his wife Sirkka Vulkko, 54, with a crossbow he had picked from his home.

On April 19 Muranen shot mailman Matti Olli, 45, with the assault rifle. He also shot randomly at nearby houses. After this he escaped to the nearby forest with his dog. During the chase, police shot the dog with a submachine gun. Muranen shot many times at police officers who were after him with an assault rifle.

The police chased him for a day before slightly wounding him. After he was arrested he regretted that his military service would be terminated.

Muranen was found to be mentally stable for the trial. Kotka district court sentenced him to life in prison for three murders, eight attempted murders and three attempted manslaughters. He started serving his sentence in Mikkeli state prison.

The same year there was a similar case in Sweden, when Fänrik Mattias Flink killed seven people with an Ak 5.

In 2006, when Mika Muranen was serving his sentence in a Laukaa labor prison, he gave an interview for a Finnish crime magazine Alibi.

Muranen applied for parole in December 2007.[1]