Krakow shooting suspect dies in hospital as Poland mourns six victims
Seven Lights
The suspect in the shooting at Krakow’s Main Market Square on Saturday, which killed six people, died in hospital early Monday, Polish police said.
The 24-year-old, named in local media as Michal O., had been in critical condition after a gun battle with armed officers, who shot him within three minutes of the attack beginning. Authorities said he was probably inspired by far-right ideologies. “We would like to inform you that the perpetrator of the tragic events died in hospital early this morning,” Malopolska police wrote on X.
The attack began shortly before 3 p.m. local time in the square at the heart of Krakow, Poland’s second-largest city. The dead were four women and two men: four Poles, a British national and an Austrian woman. Seventeen people were injured, among them five foreigners from Britain, Austria, Germany, Portugal and Russia, and two police officers, one in serious condition.
Three bodies found in the gunman’s home after the attack were identified Sunday as his father, 53, his mother, 52, and his sister, 21. Polish media reported that the suspect held a firearms permit and may have obtained his weapons from the family home.
The national prosecutor’s office opened a terrorism investigation into “the killing of six people … using a firearm, and the attempted murder of many others, including police officers, this act constituting a terrorist offence.” An interior ministry spokeswoman said emblems found on the suspect’s clothing were being examined by specialists.
Two days of national mourning began Monday. The square reopened on Sunday evening, and Poles laid flowers and lit candles near the scene.
The shooting followed several school stabbings in Poland in October that left one woman dead and deepened concern about extremism in a country long considered safer than many of its European neighbors. The prosecutor’s investigation continued after the suspect’s death.