On the evening of February 18, Safarov bought an axe and a honing stone at Tesco, near Ferenc Puskás Stadium. He took them in the bag to his dormitory room at the Zrínyi Miklós National Defence University, where all the course participants were staying. Safarov's roommate had returned to his native Ukraine to attend the funerals of his relatives and so nobody interrupted Safarov as he sharpened the axe in his room. At around 5:00 am on February 19, Safarov took the axe and went to Margaryan's room, which he was sharing with his Hungarian roommate, Balázs Kuti. The door of their room was not locked. Safarov attacked the sleeping Margaryan with the axe and delivered 16 blows to his body, which almost severed Margaryan’s head. The noises woke up Kuti, who was shocked seeing the Azerbaijani officer standing by Gurgen’s bed with a long axe in his hands. As Kuti later testified, “By that time I understood that something terrible had happened for there was blood all around. I started to shout at the Azerbaijani urging him to stop it. He said that he had no problems with me and would not touch me, stabbed Gurgen a couple of more times and left. The expression of his face was as if he was glad he had finished something important. Greatly shocked, I ran out of the room to find help, and Ramil went in another direction”.