Poland’s interior minister, Marcin Kierwinski, has reported that the alleged author of the death of six people shot in the center of Krakow is a 24-year-old Polish man with “ultranationalist” ideas.
“Everything seems to indicate that the person responsible had very radical ideas. Several weapons were found in his car (...). He fired an automatic weapon and came from the town of Swietokrzyskie. He is of Polish nationality and was born in 2002,” Kierwinski explained, according to Polish press.
Among the lines of investigation, it is considered that the weapon used came from his parents’ home, given that the father had a firearms license. “There is also an investigation at the house where he lived. For obvious reasons, counterterrorism units take part in these operations,” the minister recounted.
Kierwinski has pointed out that among the fatal victims there is at least one person of foreign nationality and has detailed that another 16 people were injured and have been treated in different hospitals. Two of the injured have already been discharged. Among those injured are the attacker himself and two police officers: one of them with a gunshot wound, out of danger, and the other with three bullet impacts and in a very serious condition.
The attacker was hit by shots from the officers during the operation to apprehend him, which is why he was injured before being subdued. He is currently being admitted to a hospital in Krakow, where he has already undergone an initial surgical procedure and has started a second operation.
The head of the Interior Ministry has also wanted to clarify that there are no indications of the involvement of more people in the attack and has emphasized that, for the moment, the Police do not have information pointing to other suspects.
On the other hand, Kierwinski has highlighted the speed of the police response, which, as he has stressed, “avoided a much greater tragedy.” The first shots by the officers were fired just three minutes after the first alert was received.
The Prosecutor’s Office has indicated that a team of seven investigators continues analyzing the scene of the shooting “to determine all the circumstances, whether there was any collaborator, check several locations, and determine whether the situation is completely under control.”
According to the provisional reconstruction of the facts, the attacker arrived by car at the Main Market Square at around 3:00 p.m. and opened indiscriminate fire from the vehicle with an automatic weapon. He went around the perimeter of the square and then fled in the direction of the Kazimierz district, where he was finally intercepted and neutralized by the Police after a chase.