Warsaw, Nov 9. (dpa/GNA) – The perpetrator of the mass shooting in Kraków’s main square at the weekend, died of his injuries in hospital on Monday morning, police in Poland said.
The 24-year-old was injured when police overpowered him, after the fatal attack on Saturday afternoon, that left six dead and more than a dozen injured. Police said 15 injured people remain in hospital, including two officers.
Fourteen of those hospitalized are reported to be in stable condition, while one of the injured officers is said to be in serious condition.
The gunman had attacked from a moving car, and fired indiscriminately at passers-by in the city’s busy market square. His exact motive remains unclear, but Interior Minister Marcin Kierwiński has said, initial findings suggested the suspect held “very radical views” and was fascinated by far-right ideology.
Polish prosecutors had classified the mass shooting as a terrorist offence, due to the severity of the crime.
Kraków prosecutor, Eryk Stasielak, told the Polish news agency PAP that investigations into the motive and possible links of the shooter would continue despite the death of the suspect.
Stasielak said the man’s death only meant that procedural steps directly targeting him, such as pre-trial detention, were dropped. Otherwise, the investigation would continue. “A large amount of evidence needs to be analysed,” he said.
The shooter is suspected of first having shot dead three relatives in a residential building in the town of Ostrowiec Świętokrzyski, about a two-hour drive north-east of Kraków. They were his father, mother and sister.
Polish President, Karol Nawrocki, declared two days of national mourning, which continued on Monday. Radio and television stations revised their schedules and cancelled entertainment programmes, while theatres called off performances and concerts began with a minute’s silence.
In central Kraków, people laid candles and flowers, and also placed cards bearing the French inscription “Je suis Kraków” (I am Kraków) at the site. This echoes the “Je suis Charlie” slogan that was widely used after the killing of cartoonists at the French Charlie Hebdo satirical magazine in a terrorist attack in 2015.
A rally has been announced for Monday evening in the main market square, at the scene of the mass shooting.
Mayor Łukasz Gibała said on social media: “Let us show solidarity at this difficult time and prove that Kraków will always be a proud, hospitable and open city.”
GNA