Shot father waited over hour for help in Taivalkoski shooting

A father who was shot at a village hall in Taivalkoski in March 2025 had to wait more than an hour for help to arrive, according to witness accounts and official records obtained by Yle. The victim, a family man working as a wood buyer for a forest company, was shot in the lower back with a shotgun by an 85-year-old reindeer herder shortly before a meeting of the local joint ownership and fisheries groups was set to begin.

Bystanders disarmed the shooter, who then left the scene and drove home before calling emergency services. Those at the hall tried to stem the victim’s bleeding, locked the doors, and made several calls to the emergency center. The victim did not die immediately but was conscious and struggling for his life.

Emergency medical services received the first alert at 9:49 a.m., according to Juha Paloneva, head of emergency care at Oulu University Hospital. An ambulance was dispatched a minute later, followed by a medical helicopter two minutes after that. The ambulance reached the vicinity of the village hall 22 minutes after the alert, and the helicopter soon after. However, both waited before approaching the scene because police had not yet declared it safe. Paloneva said emergency crews do not enter such incidents until police have confirmed safety and given permission. The victim was not treated until 61 minutes after the first alert, he added.

Police provided a slightly different account. Detective Superintendent Jyrki Kivirinta of the Oulu police department said the police were alerted at 9:56 a.m., after the shooter himself called the emergency number. Patrols were sent from Kuusamo and Pudasjärvi; the Pudasjärvi unit arrived first and proceeded to the scene with the waiting EMS crews. Kivirinta said police were on site 62 minutes after the alert. He disputed that police ordered EMS to stay away, saying they were only told that the police could guarantee safe working conditions once on scene. He also noted there was no certainty at the time whether the shooter might return, as his location and whether he was still armed only became clear later.

Witness Pasi Kivimäki, chairman of the Jokijärvi fisheries association, told Yle he and others at the hall kept calling the emergency center as they waited. “We were already outside wondering why no help was coming,” he recalled. Kivirinta acknowledged that the waiting time likely felt longer for those at the scene. The shooter was later convicted of manslaughter in a state of non-insanity earlier this month, according to the report.

Tags: Finland, shooting, emergency response