Krakow shooting suspect dies in hospital after six people killed
Poland on Sunday launched a terrorism probe as mourners brought candles and flowers to Kraków’s cordoned-off Main Market Square in tribute to six people killed by a gunman who authorities said was “fascinated by far-right ideologies”.
The 24-year-old Polish man opened fire at random Saturday in the historic centre of the country’s second city, killing six people and wounding 15 in what Prime Minister Donald Tusk called an act of “terrorism”.
The alleged perpetrator has since died, Polish police said on Monday, two days after he was critically wounded in a shootout with officers.
“We inform you that the perpetrator of the tragic events died this morning in the hospital,” regional police said in a post on X.
A 32-year-old British man and a 51-year-old Austrian woman were among the dead, the Malopolska region’s governor Krzysztof Kleczar told reporters. The four others killed were Polish.
Among the wounded were nationals from Germany, Portugal and Russia, an interior ministry spokeswoman said.
Three more bodies were found at the suspect’s home in Ostrowiec Swietokrzyski, around 150km northeast of Kraków. Police said they were his parents and a sister.
The National Prosecutor’s Office said it had launched a terrorism investigation.
“I’m absolutely devastated,” Weronika Filar, 27, a Krakow resident, told AFP on Sunday.
“It’s one of the safest places on Earth, genuinely... I did not expect anything like this to happen to us,” she said. “Our city will never be the same.”
“We’ve heard of various incidents of this sort happening elsewhere in Europe,” Krzysztof Stepien, a 28-year-old part-time city guide told AFP.
“Nothing like this has ever happened here, and I hope it never will again,” Stepien said.
Two police officers were wounded as they chased the suspect, who was masked and dressed in military garb, including a bulletproof vest.
The man left his car at an intersection and started shooting at the officers with a semi-automatic rifle, according to police.
Officer hailed as hero
Social media images showed the two police officers firing at the gunman, with one managing to wound him despite his own injuries.
One police officer was in serious but stable condition, the interior ministry said, as quoted by PAP.
Police named him as “Jakub Kulik, who without hesitation confronted an armed attacker”.
On Sunday, the usually busy site of the attack was sealed off with red-and-white tape.
Most of the souvenir shops, restaurants and cafes remained closed.
Black flags and Poland’s flags with black ribbons were seen in the city as Warsaw announced two days of national mourning for the victims from Sunday.
Relatives’ bodies found
The suspect was named in the media as Michal O.
Police said the three bodies found at the gunman’s home were those of his parents, a 53-year-old man and a 52-year-old woman, and of his 21-year-old sister.
Police officers were still inspecting the flat of the suspect in Ostrowiec Swietokrzyski, an AFP reporter saw.
“Injuries were found on the bodies, which were preliminarily assessed as gunshot wounds... Seven firearms were seized from the flat,” police said.
Interior Minister Marcin Kierwinski said police had also found weapons in the suspect’s car.
According to investigators quoted in the Polish media, Michal O. had no previous criminal record.
He was a member of a shooting club, with his father.
Britain’s Prime Minister Andy Burnham said he was “shocked and saddened by the appalling shooting”.
- AFP