Kraków attacker dies in hospital; prosecutors link him to killing of his parents and sister
Michał O., the 24-year-old Pole who shot dead six people on Kraków's Main Square, died in hospital early on Monday, police said. Prosecutors are treating the attack as terrorism and say he also killed his parents and sister.
The man who opened fire on Kraków's Main Square on Saturday, killing six people, died in hospital early on Monday, Małopolska police said. "We inform you that the perpetrator of the tragic events died this morning in hospital," police wrote on X.
Prosecutor Tomasz Waszczuk of the Kraków District Prosecutor's Office said the attacker was a 24-year-old Polish citizen. Polish media identify him as Michał O., from Ostrowiec Świętokrzyski. He had no criminal record and held a firearms permit, police spokesman Andrzej Fijołek said. Police said the weapon used was a civilian version of the AR-15 carbine.
The National Prosecutor's Office has opened an investigation into the killing of six people in Kraków and the attempted murder of many others, including police officers, and classifies the attack as a crime of a terrorist nature. The same investigation covers the deaths of three people in Ostrowiec Świętokrzyski: the attacker's father, 53, mother, 52, and sister, 21, who were found shot in their flat on Saturday evening. Prosecutors say the same person is responsible for both.
Investigators secured eleven firearms in Kraków and Ostrowiec, exactly the number covered by permits held by the attacker and his father, according to the Kielce prosecutor's office. Prosecutor Eryk Stasielak said the attacker's death does not end the investigation. No charges will be filed against him.
Among the six people killed in Kraków were four Poles, a 32-year-old British man and a 51-year-old Austrian woman, Małopolska Voivode Krzysztof Klęczar said. Sixteen people were taken to hospital, including two police officers who were shot during the chase near Dietla and Stradomska streets. Prime Minister Donald Tusk said the officers, Jakub Kulik and Artur Morański, probably saved many lives.
Interior Minister Marcin Kierwiński said investigators are checking several hypotheses about the motive, including the attacker's reported fascination with far-right ideologies. Justice Minister Waldemar Żurek said prosecutors have evidence that sheds more light on the attack, but that it is too early to speak about the motive.
A young woman who says she was his classmate told Radio Eska that he drew hangings and school shootings in class, said a school shooting would make his dreams come true, and once joined a remote lesson during the pandemic wearing an old gas mask, according to Visegrád 24. She described him as quiet and without friends. Her account has not been confirmed by investigators.