Krakow Shooting: What Is Known About the Gunman and His Family

TVS News AI, editorially supervised, presents Krakow Shooting: What Is Known About the Gunman and His Family.

On Saturday afternoon, a 24-year-old drove a car into the busy market square in the center of Krakow. He fired indiscriminately at bystanders. According to police, six people died. A further 15 people were injured, some of them critically.

The attack therefore left at least 21 people directly affected at the market square. In addition, a shootout left two police officers seriously injured. The gunman himself was shot before being taken into custody.

Poland responded with two days of national mourning on Sunday and Monday. Flags at public buildings across the country were lowered to half-mast. President Karol Nawrocki described the attack as an “unprecedented act of terrorism.”

National mourning is being observed throughout Poland after the fatal shooting of bystanders in a market square in Krakow.

Six Dead and 15 Injured in Krakow Market Square

The attack

The 24-year-old drove his car into the busy market square in central Krakow on Saturday. He then began firing indiscriminately at bystanders. According to police, six people were killed and 15 others were injured. Some of those injured were in critical condition.

Investigators found the weapon used in the attack, a rifle, along with additional weapons and ammunition in his car at the scene. This discovery is one of the few concrete details established about the background to the attack. The gunman's motive, meanwhile, remains unclear.

The victims

Several of the victims were foreign nationals. One British man was killed. According to confirmation from the Foreign Office, one of those injured was a German.

Four other injured people came from Britain, Portugal, Austria and Russia. The report therefore identifies at least six foreign nationals among the victims of the attack: one person killed and five injured.

Parents and Sister Found in Ostrołęw Świętokrzyski

The three family victims

One day after the shooting in Krakow, Polish police confirmed that the suspect was believed to have previously shot three members of his own family. These were said to be his parents and sister.

The three bodies were discovered on Saturday in the 24-year-old's family home. The house is located in Ostrołęw Świętokrzyski, approximately 180 kilometers northeast of Krakow. The location of the suspected family killings is therefore not in the city center, where the gunman later shot bystanders, but in a separate city in northeastern Poland.

What was confirmed at the time

That evening, Prime Minister Donald Tusk announced that the victims were likely the perpetrator's immediate family. At that stage, however, this identification had not been officially confirmed, according to the report. It was not until the following day that police confirmed the suspicion concerning the three murdered family members.

This sequence is important. Tusk was already referring to the immediate family, while police did not confirm the three deaths connected to the perpetrator until the following day. They are therefore classified in the report as suspected murder victims of the gunman, rather than as an established judicial fact.

Two Police Officers Injured During the Arrest

The shootout

As the gunman drove away from central Krakow, he was stopped by police. A shootout followed, during which two officers were critically injured. The 24-year-old was also shot before being taken into custody.

Prime Minister Donald Tusk honored the two police officers as “true heroes.” Interior Minister Marcin Kierwiński publicly thanked them for their immediate and heroic actions. Justice Minister Waldemar Żurek called on the public via X to donate blood for one of the injured officers.

Żurek said the injured police officer had the rare blood type AB Rhesus positive and was fighting for his life. This information explains the specific blood donation appeal: it was not a general appeal for donations, but a call for blood for an officer with a rare blood type.

Right-Wing Motivation Under Investigation, Motive Still Unclear

The direction of the investigation

Investigators examined indications that the perpetrator had been fascinated by far-right ideologies. These indications form one avenue of the investigation. However, Tagesschau does not present a political motivation as the confirmed cause.

Alongside the marksman found in the car and the indications of right-wing ideology, major questions remain unanswered. According to the available information, the motive for the shooting in Krakow has not been conclusively established. Nor are the exact sequence of events at the two crime scenes and the nature of the 24-year-old's relationship with his parents and sister described in further detail.

Commemorating the victims at the scene

A service for the victims was scheduled for the afternoon at St. Mary's Church in the market square. In this way, the Polish government directly linked the national commemoration with the site of the attack. The two days of national mourning, the flags lowered to half-mast and the service represent the documented response to the attack, which left six people dead and 15 injured.

According to police, the 24-year-old is suspected of having killed a total of nine people: six bystanders in Krakow, as well as his parents and sister in Ostrołęw Świętokrzyski. The nine deaths remain part of the police suspicion. The six people killed and 15 people injured in Krakow are considered confirmed. There is still no confirmed explanation for the gunman's motive or his reasons for killing the three family members.