Four Russian police officers in the city of Serpukhov near Moscow have been fired over their failure in 2017 to arrest a man who is now the chief suspect in the July 22 rape and killing of a 5-year-old Tajik girl.
Moscow regional police spokeswoman Tatyana Petrova said on July 26 that the police chief in Serpukhov also will be fired when he returns from vacation.
According to Petrova, the officers were fired after an internal investigation revealed that the Serpukhov police department did not properly investigate complaints of a man trying to sexually assault two young girls on a playground.
The same 27-year-old man was arrested on July 23 on charges of raping and killing 5-year-old Huvaido Tillozoda -- a citizen of Tajikistan and the daughter of Tajik migrant workers.
Tillozoda's body was found in a gym bag near a railway in Serpukhov on July 23.
Residents of the building where the victim lived with her parents say the suspect also lived in the same building.
They say the suspect had been reported to police in 2017 by another resident of the building who accused him of trying to sexually abuse her daughter and another girl.
But they said police never followed through on the complaint with an investigation.
