The gunman who killed six people in a mass shooting in Krakow’s historic Main Square on Saturday died of his wounds in hospital on Monday, Polish police said.
The 24-year-old is believed to have killed his father, mother and sister before driving about 150 kilometers to Krakow. Their bodies were found at the family’s apartment in Ostrowiec Świętokrzyski hours after the attack, and investigators believe they were shot before he left.
Shortly after 3 p.m. on Saturday, the gunman drove into the crowded Main Market Square, the heart of Krakow’s Old Town and one of Poland’s busiest tourist sites, and opened fire from his car with an AR-15-style rifle. Six people were killed, four women and two men, including a British man and an Austrian woman, and at least 15 others were wounded.
He then fled through the Old Town, pursued by police. About a kilometer south of the square, he exchanged fire with two officers. Both were hit, but one managed to return fire and wound him. Authorities have credited the two officers, who remain hospitalized in serious condition, with preventing a far higher death toll.
Prosecutors are treating the attack as an act of terrorism. Interior Minister Marcin Kierwiński said the gunman held “very radical” and “ultranationalistic” views and was fascinated by far-right ideologies. Prime Minister Donald Tusk called it an “act of terrorism.”
The gunman legally owned two firearms for sport shooting, and his father held about a dozen registered guns, according to authorities. Police recovered 11 weapons in total.
Mass shootings are rare in Poland. President Karol Nawrocki declared two days of national mourning, and for the first time since World War II, the famous trumpet call from Krakow’s St. Mary’s Basilica fell silent overnight.
