The wounded worker managed to press a panic button at 9:25, triggering an alarm in the school and alerting law enforcement.

[15] Next, Galyaviev moved to different classrooms, which were closed due to the radio announcement, and shot at people in the halls, killing a teacher.

[4][10] Galyaviev then set off an improvised explosive device near the first-floor English-language room before moving to the second floor, reloading his weapon in a bathroom and killed another teacher.

[24] Ilnaz Renatovich Galyaviev (Tatar: Илназ Галәвиев; Russian: Ильназ Ренатович Галявиев; born 11 September 2001),[25] a 19-year-old resident of Kazan, was detained.

[30] Galyaviev had previously sought mental health treatment and testing revealed some cerebral atrophy a year before the shooting,[3] though he was not registered with a psychiatrist.

[10][12][34] On 12 May, Galyaviev pleaded guilty to the murder of two or more persons (Criminal Code of Russia, Article 105, Part 2), which carries a sentence of life imprisonment.

On 21 July, mass media reported that he was declared insane, but the Investigative Committee of Russia refuted this information.

[36] According to the lawyer of the accused Vladimir Bogdan, as of 16 November 2021, after the second psychological and psychiatric examination, Galyaviev was found to have committed the crime in a state of sanity.

A wider group of experts was involved in the re-examination, to which the investigation presented additional materials — the conclusions of psychiatrists that Galyaviev's motivation was reduced to imitating the actions of other followers of this trend.

"[40] On 10 April 2023, Galyaviev was given the last word that he did not consider himself a god, and also said that he would write a book and pay off claims against the relatives of the dead.

[43] According to Galyaviev's testimony given to the investigation, in February 2021, because of his hatred for all people, he decided to commit mass murder.

He placed the detonator and the explosive substance in a 5-liter plastic bottle, to which he attached nuts with duct tape as defeat elements.

[51] President Vladimir Putin expressed condolences to the relatives of the victims and ordered the government to tighten the country's gun laws.

[53] Secretary of the General Council of United Russia, Andrey Turchak, stressed the need to toughen legislation on gun trafficking and find better approaches to protect schools.

[54] State Duma Chairman Vyacheslav Volodin expressed the need for a procedure to prevent unstable citizens from obtaining weapons.

[26] Director of the National Guard of Russia, Viktor Zolotov, proposed a mandatory psychological test when receiving a permit for a firearm.

[56] Volodin said the shooting introduced the need to discuss anonymity on the Internet in order to reduce extremist and violent content.