The Library Media — National & World · World Desk
By Maya Wilson
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Kraków shooting suspect who killed six has died in hospital, say police in Poland
Kraków, Poland — The 24-year-old Polish national suspected of killing six people and injuring 16 in Kraków’s main market square on Saturday has died in hospital, Małopolska police said on X on Monday.
The suspect’s death ends the immediate manhunt and the prospect of a trial, but it does not end the investigation. Justice Minister Waldemar Żurek said the terrorism investigation continues despite the suspect’s death, to establish whether he acted alone or was inspired by a group.
Interior Minister Marcin Kierwiński said the gunman held far-right, ultra-nationalistic views. That assessment, and the question of whether he was inspired by a group, is now the central focus for investigators.
Sixteen people were injured in the attack. Fifteen were stable late on Sunday, including two police officers who had been brought out of induced comas. Earlier counts of 17 injured have been superseded.
The bodies of the gunman’s father, 53, mother, 52, and sister, 21, were found at the family home in Ostrowiec Świętokrzyski, about 100 miles north-east of Kraków. Police believe they probably died from gunshot wounds. They are separate from the six victims killed in the square.
Among the six victims were a 32-year-old British man and a 51-year-old Austrian woman. The other four were Polish. The suspect had no criminal record and held a firearms licence.
The square reopened late on Sunday. Flags are at half mast for two days of national mourning, including EU flags in Brussels.
The death of the suspect does not close the case. It removes the possibility of questioning him, and it leaves investigators to reconstruct his motives and contacts from other evidence. The question of whether he acted alone, or was inspired by a group, will determine how Poland understands an attack that killed six people in one of its most visited public spaces.
For now, the facts are stark: a gunman with no criminal record and a firearms licence killed six people, injured 16, and is now dead. The investigation into why he did it continues.
(Maya Wilson — Intelligence Lead, The Library Media)
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