Skier who beat teen cries in court as mother defends him
Yakov expresses deep regret for his actions during the court hearing.
Black mustaches made a simple marketer from Yekaterinburg, Yakov Shusharin, famous throughout the city. They were on his face when he beat a 13-year-old schoolboy on the slope of the Uktus ski resort, and became a key identifying feature when he was placed on the wanted list. Details are in a report by our colleagues at E1.RU.
Yakov shaved his mustache off immediately but later turned himself in to police.
Yakov went to the police himself. Law enforcement officers did not immediately realize he was the man from the bulletin, as he had shaved off his thick mustache right after the incident on the mountain. He says he wasn«t trying to alter his appearance, just tidying up.
Kristina is deeply worried for her son, as doctors warn of possible long-term effects from his injuries.
Yakov explained that he attacked the child while defending his wife and young daughter. The teenager had accidentally knocked his wife over while sledding down the hill on a snow scooter. At that moment, the man flew into a rage: without even giving the boy a chance to apologize, he set upon him with his fists, hitting him in the head several times.
The man pleaded not to be separated from his daughter and asked to remain free during the trial.
«He wasn»t just hitting him, he was pummeling him«
Yakov«s daughter misses her father, whom she was with on the ski slope when the incident occurred.
13-year-old Vladistmir was at Uktus with a friend, riding a snow scooter. On one descent, the boy saw people standing on the slope. The child says he tried to brake but didn«t manage in time, so he crashed into a woman.
Yakov«s mother and wife believe he simply snapped under extreme stress.
«I stretched my arms out forward to soften the blow for the woman,» the boy told police. «I didn»t have time to apologize before he started hitting me. My head was spinning, my vision went blurry.«
Yakov apologized directly to the teenage victim«s mother in the courtroom.
Literally a minute later, the boy«s friend ran up to the slope. He wanted to distract the aggressor so he would stop beating him. When the man chased the second teenager, Vladistmir managed to get up and go home.
The man flew into an instant rage and began delivering heavy blows to the fallen teenager.
When he told his parents what had happened, they immediately took him to the hospital. The boy was diagnosed with a broken nose, a concussion, and a closed head injury.
Yakov«s relatives explained the family stress they say triggered his violent outburst against the boy.
«If I had been there, I don»t know what I would have done. He [Yakov] wasn«t just hitting him, he was pummeling him. The child was given a month of sick leave, he»s not going to school, an old neurological condition has flared up. It«s still unclear what the consequences of the head injury will be; they could manifest later,» the teenager«s mother, Kristina, explained to E1.RU.
Vladistmir«s mother Kristina is a world champion in belly dance (a Middle Eastern dance style) and runs her own Telegram channel where she talks about her life and travels. She also posted the video from the ski resort cameras, which shows her son being brutally beaten by a mustachioed man, on her channel. Within a few days, it spread across all the city»s media and public pages.
Kristina has four children. Vladistmir is the eldest child in the family. He had been to Uktus often, and his mother considered the ski resort grounds a safe place for walks, especially since her son knew it well. The boy regularly snowboards there with an instructor.
«Right now, the child is very distressed after what happened, and the younger children are too,» Kristina shared.
«My wife may have been pregnant»
Yakov turned himself in to police four days after beating the boy. He says he wasn«t trying to hide from the investigation or disguise himself, but during that time he did change his hairstyle and shave his mustache.
He came to confess after seeing himself on the video that was already everywhere. That day on the slope, he and his wife were teaching their four-year-old daughter to ski. The man became furious when the snow scooter crashed into them.
«In a fit of rage, I hit the person who knocked down my wife several times. With my fist to the head area and the torso area. My wife may have been pregnant. That is, we are trying to conceive a second child, and for me this was a stressful situation,» Yakov explained.
Investigators opened a criminal case under the article «Hooliganism.» In court, where his pre-trial restrictions were being determined, the former mustache-wearer asked the boy«s mother for forgiveness and even broke down in tears.
He wiped away tears as he explained why he attacked and beat the boy.
«My vision went dark, I didn»t see a child in front of me, I saw a man who knocked down my wife. I was very scared, I don«t understand what came over me at that moment. I am ready to see a psychiatrist to find out if I am a danger to society, if that is necessary. Please forgive me,» Yakov said in court.
The man was supported by his wife Anastasia, who had tried to stop her enraged husband on the slope. She brought their four-year-old daughter to court with her. The girl wasn«t allowed into the courtroom, although she very much wanted to see her father. In the corridor, the little girl watched cartoons with her grandfather while her mother explained why her father had attacked another child.
«We have been trying to conceive a child for several months, we»re not succeeding, we are under stress. Then I fall, I could have been pregnant, my husband is stressed because of that. It«s not like he looked and thought, »Now I«ll beat him up,» something just snapped in him. It was a reaction to a specific situation,« says Yakov»s wife.
The mother of 38-year-old Yakov also came to the hearing. She whispered into the camera to her son: «You»re not to blame!«—and defended him to journalists. Friendly, active, an avid hiker (he grew his thick mustache during another hiking trip), he had never been involved in serious conflicts, has no criminal record, and has no bad habits.
The woman is convinced that the teenager, whom her adult son punched in the head, is also at fault. In the courthouse corridor, she even tried to explain this to the boy«s mother, who was shocked by such accusations and preferred to walk away to avoid an argument.
«Your son committed a hooligan act,» the accused«s mother stated to the mother of the injured teenager. »And my son did it unintentionally.«
«Thank you, I understand that you also beat him,» Kristina snapped and went to another part of the corridor.
Yakov«s mother continued her train of thought in front of journalists» cameras.
«That slope is meant for teaching children, not for riding snow scooters. The boy committed a hooligan act, he didn»t even yell, didn«t ask people to move aside,» says the accused«s mother, Lyudmila Yuryevna. »He and his friend were giggling and looking towards my children. And the video shows the slope is big, but they just had to go right for my kids.«
«You acted like a beast!»
Yakov, unlike his relatives, does not doubt his guilt. He offered to compensate the boy«s family for damages (the child»s treatment requires financial costs), but the schoolboy«s mother categorically refused both apologies and money.
«You acted like a beast. I believe your behavior is dangerous, like that of a beast,» the child«s mother said and asked for the strictest possible pre-trial restrictions for the man.
The skier«s lawyer insisted on house arrest, but investigators believed that at large he could pressure witnesses or flee, since after beating the teenager he had left the scene. The court agreed with this position and sent Yakov to jail for a month and a half.
«Yasha, hang in there! We will appeal!» said the accused«s mother as she left the courtroom.
Under the «Hooliganism» article, the man faces up to five years in prison.
Our colleagues followed the court hearing live online.
Read also
Recently in Arkhangelsk, a passenger attacked a bus driver and beat him. Video of the incident was published by the TV channel «Rico.» Another similar case occurred in the fall of 2025.
In the summer, a criminal case was opened in Arkhangelsk regarding the beating of a military personnel member in the settlement of Turdeevsk.
Conflicts also happen in schools in the Pomorye region, and then reach the courts: it has happened that a teacher and a student fought in Arkhangelsk.
