On the afternoon of May 5, a traffic police patrol was attacked in Makhachkala. Two police officers and one of the attackers were killed. Five people, including bystanders, were wounded. Investigators later reported that the militants' actions were coordinated from abroad.
The shootout occurred during the day at the busy intersection of Kerimov and Magomedtagirov Streets, but in the first hours, reports about the incident were extremely contradictory. Reports ranged from four attackers to two, who either fled in a traffic police car or were killed on the spot. The head of the republic, Sergei Melikov, released details of the attack before security forces did. All this suggests that the official version of the incident was being revised.
The final version states that two men armed with knives attacked police officers patrolling the city, stole their weapons and car, and were seriously wounded during the shootout. The car they were trying to escape in crashed into the wall of a building. Seven people were taken to hospitals. One of the militants died on the operating table, while the second survived and attended a court hearing remotely from his hospital room on May 12, where he was remanded in custody. Among the wounded civilians were a 17-year-old girl and a 40-year-old woman who happened to be at the scene of the shootout.
The Investigative Committee of the Russian Federation for Dagestan opened a case under Articles 317 of the Russian Criminal Code (attempt on the life of law enforcement officers), 166 (illegal seizure of a vehicle without intent to steal), and 226 (theft of weapons). Later, another suspect and two more articles were added to the case regarding the attack on the police officers: Part 1 of Article 205.4 (creation and leadership of a terrorist organization) and Subparagraph "b" of Part 3 of Article 205 (terrorist act).
According to the Investigative Committee of the Russian Federation, "during operational support from the republic's Federal Security Service and the Ministry of Internal Affairs for the Republic of Dagestan, a 41-year-old native of the republic was identified as being involved in recruiting the aforementioned individuals to commit terrorist crimes." Apparently, a third suspect emerged after interrogations of the wounded militant, who "admitted guilt and described the circumstances of the attack in detail." According to investigators, the third suspect "between January and May 5, 2025, while in a foreign country, used online messaging to persuade two local residents to create a terrorist organization in Makhachkala and to commit a terrorist act on May 5, 2025."
Sergey Melikov nominated the deceased police officers for awards and allocated one million rubles each to their families from the regional social fund "All Together." The victims have also been promised assistance of up to 500,000 rubles.
This is the fourth attack on police officers in Dagestan since the beginning of the year. All of the incidents followed the same scenario: police officers stop a car to check documents, and the perpetrators open fire. This happened in February in the district center of Khuchni, in March in the Makhachkala village of Semender, and in April in Derbent. Each time, authorities claim the perpetrators acted on instructions from unknown coordinators abroad.
