The killer who shot dead three security guards in the Karavan shopping center in Kyiv was mentally prepared to commit this crime, Ukrainian Interior Minister Vitaliy Zakharchenko has said.

"You see that the mental and psychological state of the man was such that the man was ready to start shooting... The man was mentally prepared to do it," he said in an interview with TSN (Television News Service, 1+1 TV Channel), part of which was published on the channel's Web site on Tuesday.

Zakharchenko said that Interior Ministry specialists were now investigating what might have caused such a psychological state of the killer that "he started hunting."

He noted that it had been discovered during the investigation that the man had equipment for the production of cartridges.

"I have already said that his gun contained a special device to capture cases after shooting. Accordingly, the person was also prepared to leave as little traces of the crime as possible at the scene," the minister said.

When asked whether the gun from which the guards were killed was seized during the search of the apartment of suspect Yaroslav Mazurok, Zakharchenko referred to the secrecy of the investigation.

While commenting on the suggestion that Mazurok could commit suicide, he said: "According to our Christian traditions, suicide is a great sin. So I think that he should better come and surrender."

As reported, a robber shot dead three employees of a private security firm and seriously wounded another one in the Karavan shopping mall on Luhova Street in Kyiv on September 26. One of the security guards saw a visitor stealing a USB flash drive from a glass case. The guard asked the man to go to the back room, where other guards were waiting. In the room the man pulled out a gun and started shooting, killing three security guards on the spot and seriously wounding a fourth. The attacker then fled the scene.

The Obolon District Police Office has opened a criminal case on the incident. The suspect was put on the wanted lists in Russia and Belarus

Executive Director of Karavan Serhiy Kyslenko promised UAH 100,000 for assistance in finding the suspect.

On October 5, Ukrainian Interior Minister Vitaliy Zakharchenko stated that the killer of three security guards from the Karavan shopping mall in Kyiv was Yaroslav Mazurok, a native of Lviv region, born in 1974, who previously worked at private security firms.