Veikko Veijola

Veikko Veijola

Kuolinaika: 26.8.1992

Location / Place: Haukipudas

Rank: Sergeant

Police unit: Kiiminki Sheriff's District

Lähteitä: Etelä-Suomen Sanomat 27.08.1992 nro 232 p. 4; Länsi-Savo 27.08.1992 nro 230 p. 3

Nickname: Kalervo

Tapahtumien kuvaus: On the afternoon of 26.8.1992, a woman who was leaving her male partner called the police since she needed support when going to the couple’s home to pick up her belongings. Detective Sergeant Lasse Hanhela and Sergeant Kalervo Veijola decided to take care of this routine assignment, which did not appear particularly dangerous. Outside the house the man, a 32-year-old auto body repairman, appeared at the front door with his seven-year-old son. The woman asked for her belongings, but the man went inside, closing the door behind him. The policemen and the woman approached the house. Veijola led the way, but as he had reached the door, he noticed that he had forgot to turn off the lights of the police car and asked Hanhela to turn them off. Hanhela returned to the car while Veijola entered the house. As Hanhela bent down to turn off the lights, he heard a gunshot. He stood up straight again and saw the man coming out of the house armed with a shotgun. Hanhela tried to run for cover, but the man shot him in the back. Hanhela fell to the ground. The man then tried to catch the woman and boy. Although they managed to reach the neighbour’s house, the man followed them inside and shot the woman before taking his own life as well. Sergeant Veijola, who had been shot to death at close range, was found lying in the entryway of the first house. Veijola had been a police officer for more than two decades.

Memorial plaque: Police University College