The perpetrator, Andrey Shpagonov, shot and killed 9 people and seriously injured another during a robbery attempting to steal firearms from his former workplace with the State Courier Service.

In December 1991, due to his dismissals and failed business ventures, Shpagonov formulated a plan to steal weapons that had been held at his former workplace with the State Courier Service, enlisting the help of his cousin, Dmitri Kovalev, as a driver.

Despite refusing at first because he feared the death penalty in the event they were caught, Kovalev later accepted as he was heavily in debt and Shpagonov promised to make sure there were no witnesses.

After sneaking into the second floor of the building through a door that had not closed properly, he gunned down one man (named Lepuhin Лепухин) and stabbed him numerous times.

Forseyeva, who was badly injured but survived, moved to a room where she locked herself inside, called the police, and wrote Shpagonov's name on the floor using her blood in case he killed her.

Kovalev was quickly detained, at first giving false testimony, saying that on the day of the robbery, he and his brother went to Kazan to have fun, visiting a cinema and a cafe.

However, Kovalev was questioned again, this time warning that if he did not begin to cooperate with the investigation he would be given partial responsibility for the killing of the nine people, later admitting complicity in the raid.

Police received information that Shpagonov had visited his cousin, washed, dressed and left, then he called his former vocational school teacher, so she got in touch with his family and through them gave him warm clothes, as he was about to flee to Siberia.

Shpagonov had understood that he could face execution, attempting to pass himself off as insane and began talking about the voices in his mind, ordering him to kill, but forensic examination found him sane and able to take responsibility for their actions.

Lyalya Forseyeva received an award for her courage and on 26 April 2012, the twentieth anniversary of the shooting, she gave an interview to the program Capital: Results of the Week.