(I have no idea what's going on here, just that it smells funny.)
Full copyrighted AP story, posted here under Fair Use provisions.
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Dec 11, 2001
Russian Surgeon, 24, Dies on Highway While Fleeing Police
By Masha Herbst
Associated Press Writer
WATERBURY, Conn. (AP) - A 24-year-old Russian surgeon studying in Connecticut was fatally struck by a car as he fled a store with three stolen rolls of film, police said.
Doctors who worked with Roman Kuzmin at Waterbury Hospital said they were stunned to hear of his death Sunday evening and many couldn't believe the circumstances.
"I think that's rubbish," said Ted Kennon, a Yale physician who worked closely with Kuzmin. "I'd be very surprised if there was anything to that."
According to police, Kuzmin was carrying the film when he walked out of BJ's Wholesale Club in Waterbury and security guards chased him across a parking lot after an alarm sounded.
By the time two police officers arrived, Kuzmin had fled into a ravine that runs along Interstate 84, Capt. Paul Bruce said. When the officers' flashlights came upon Kuzmin, he scrambled up the embankment and onto the highway.
"The officers warned him to stop, not to go into the highway," Bruce said.
Kuzmin left Vladivostok in September to study orthopedic surgical techniques at Waterbury Hospital under a Keggi Othopedic Foundation program. Dr. Kristaps Keggi, who organized the program, said Kuzmin was "very able, very bright - a superb student and a superb individual."
Keggi said he thought it impossible that the young man would steal. He said Kuzmin was so honest that he refused to take toilet paper from the surgeon's lounge when he ran out at his apartment.
Kuzmin's parents have begun the 6,400-mile journey to Waterbury and are expected to arrive Wednesday evening to claim their son's body, Keggi said. Igor Kuzmin is a prominent orthopedic surgeon in Vladivostok.
"It's an amazing loss for us personally, and an amazing loss for Russia too, because he was a man who was going to be a leading person in Russian orthopedic surgery, without question," Keggi said.
AP-ES-12-11-01 1501EST
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