Kizlyar church shooting
shooting at an Orthodox Church in Dagestan
On 18 February 2018, a 22-year-old man local to the Russia's southern republic of Dagestan carrying a knife and a single-shot shotgun opened fire on a crowd at an Orthodox church in Kizlyar, Dagestan, killing five women and injuring several other people, including two police and three others. He was shot and killed by police on duty nearby.
The Islamic State (IS) named the man Khalil al-Dagestani, one of its soldiers. Police named him Khalil Khalilov. Pro-IS social media later shared a video of a masked man with a shotgun and knife, said to be the killer, pledging his allegiance to Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi.
Shooting
The attack occurred as churchgoers celebrated the Sunday of Forgiveness, the last day of Cheesefare week, a Christian holiday marking the last day before Lent according to the eastern Orthodox calendar. On February 18, 2018, at about 16:00 in Kizlyar, the perpetrator opened fire on a crowd of worshippers with a single-shot shotgun in the territory adjacent to the parishioners of St. George the Victorious Church. The church staff managed to quickly lock the doors, which prevented the shooter from getting inside, where about 50 people remained. Police and Rosgvardiya officers quickly arrived at the scene and engaged in a shootout with the attacker, successfully neutralizing him.
This brief starts where responsible research should: with the source description of “Kizlyar church shooting” as shooting at an Orthodox Church in Dagestan. Everything that follows is an evidence route, not borrowed authority.
Why this record matters
The subject matters to the places & architecture register because the source frames it as shooting at an Orthodox Church in Dagestan. Its deeper value depends on whether names, dates, institutions and citations support that framing.
The strongest evidence will usually combine a dated visual record with documents produced by the authority responsible for the place. The source revision retrieved here is dated Sep 5, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q49181837. Authority coordinates are 43.850, 46.717. 1 of 1 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 2018.
A single description cannot reconcile every naming convention, rebuilding phase or administrative transfer associated with a place. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.
How to read it
Treat names, boundaries and functions as historically changeable. Maps, plans, inventories and administrative records can clarify what the place meant at different dates.
- Historic place names
- Jurisdictional context
- Routes into maps and plans
Contemporary maps, plans, listed-building records, estate papers and the responsible local or national archive.
Three-step research path
- Establish the record: confirm the title “Kizlyar church shooting”, its source revision and the description used here.
- Expand the search: follow Kizlyar church shooting primary sources, Kizlyar church shooting archive and Kizlyar research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
- Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.
Questions for further research
- Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “Kizlyar church shooting”?
- What physical evidence or contemporary plan supports the description?
- Which authority defined the place, boundary or structure at the relevant date?
Search terms from this dossier
This entry incorporates text from “Kizlyar church shooting” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.