Gunman who killed six in Krakow’s Main Square dies in hospital, police say

The 24-year-old man who opened fire in the Main Square of Krakow, Poland, on 7 November, killing six people, died in hospital early on 9 November, Krakow police said.

He had been critically wounded in a gunfight with police officers and had several operations. He died at 4.30 a.m. local time, according to the authorities. Fifteen people were wounded in the attack.

The victims

Four women and two men were killed. Four of them were Polish; the others were a man from the United Kingdom and a woman from Austria. Five of the wounded were foreigners, from the UK, Portugal, Russia, Germany and Austria. The square, in Krakow’s Old Town, is one of Poland’s busiest tourist sites.

The bodies of the man’s mother, father and sister were found at the family’s home in Ostrowiec Swietokrzyski, about 150 km north-east of Krakow. Officials said they had probably been shot.

The investigation

Prosecutors have opened a case of murder and attempted murder and say the attack was a terrorist offence. Eryk Stasielak of the prosecutor’s office in Krakow said investigators were trying to find out whether anyone inspired or helped the gunman, and were working to open his phones and computers.

Interior Minister Marcin Kierwinski said over the weekend that the man appeared drawn to far-right ideas. On 9 November, a spokesman for the national prosecutor’s office, Przemyslaw Nowak, said investigators could not yet say responsibly that any ideology lay behind the attack.

Investigators recovered 11 guns in all, from the gunman and his family’s home; his father held more than 10 legally. Two police officers who stopped the attack remain in hospital. Poland held two days of national mourning, ending on 9 November.