The word attack was not in the Polish lexicon until this Saturday, when a 24-year-old young man killed six people and injured 15 in the historic center of Krakow. The country, which felt like one of the safest states in Europe and which had not experienced a mass shooting in its streets, is in shock. When the attacker's motives are still unknown, shock, anger and, above all, sadness spread among the population whose sense of security has been taken away. Poland is in mourning.
Krakow's Market Square (Rynek Glówny), where Michal O. broke into with a black Subaru and a rifle, is still cordoned off by the police a day later. “It's very strange to see it like this, so empty,” says Michal Pawelkowski, a 39-year-old lawyer from Krakow who lives next door and has come by bike with his son Jan. “We feel enormous pain,” he manages to explain, next to a police barrier. Candles and flowers begin to accumulate on the floor. Along with them, a message inherited from the support for Paris after the attack against Charlie Hebdo magazine in 2015: “Je suis Kraków” (I am Krakow, in French), the sad reminder that the city has been wounded by terror.
Michal O. killed two men and four women, aged between 32 and 61. Among the fatalities were two foreigners, a British man and an Austrian woman. The injured also include citizens of the United Kingdom, Portugal, Russia, Germany and Austria, according to the Ministry of the Interior. The attack happened in the most touristic place in the city with the most visitors in Poland.
Krzysztof Stepiew, 28, who drives a golf cart-like vehicle for sightseeing tours, fears the attack will impact tourism. "I always tell them that this is a safe place, even at night. This is something we have never seen before and the atmosphere today is nothing like Krakow." Instead of people enjoying themselves like the day before, until the attack occurred, this Sunday Stepiew sees people in silence, people who kneel in the street to pray.
The afternoon is cold, with that hazy autumn light of eastern Europe that floats without settling. There are some lost glances in the direction of the square. Like that of Barbara Leszczynska Redako, a 65-year-old retiree, whose eyes are blurred behind her sunglasses. "I don't understand it. I can't understand it. 'How is this possible?'" he manages to say.
Paulina Turek, a 41-year-old employee in a dental clinic, is from Katovice. On Saturday he couldn't get away from the news and decided to buy a train ticket to Krakow. "I'm devastated. I'm not able to process it alone and I wanted to come to be with my friends, to be together in silence, to light a candle," she shares excitedly, sitting on a bench. "I could never think that something like this could happen in Poland; we have never had shootings, but this young man also killed his entire family."
Terrorism and murder
The Prosecutor's Office has opened an investigation for terrorism against the attacker, but also for the murder of a man and two women: his parents and his little sister, a 21-year-old Fine Arts student. He killed them on Saturday morning at their home in Ostrowiec Swietokrzyski, about 200 kilometers from Krakow. Probably while they were sleeping, because they were in bed. He also shot two cats.
After the attack on the large esplanade of the market, he continued his macabre journey for more than a kilometer, shooting from the car. “He passed by here, on that street,” says Julia K., a waitress at the Fable Café, on the side of the square. “And there, he shot at a tram,” he indicates in the direction of the Plaza de Todos los Santos. There were no injuries, but it reached the moons. "We told people to go in and take shelter. We locked the door, turned off the light and hid at the back," the young woman details. “It's the scariest thing I've ever experienced.”
"We didn't see him, but we heard the shots. It was very scary," Julia continues. "I no longer feel safe; well, today I do because there are a lot of police, but this is going to stay with us."
After terrorizing pedestrians for just over a kilometer, the attacker was arrested by the police. The agents shot him to neutralize him and he had to undergo surgery. He is still in critical condition and authorities have not reported his possible motives. He had no criminal record or criminal history.
The Home Secretary suggested on Saturday that he seemed “fascinated by far-right ideology”. This Sunday, this hypothesis has not been discussed again and there are even photos of him with flags pointing in the opposite direction, to the left. "Let's not attribute an ideology to a disturbed man. He simply murdered people," Krakow police sources told Rzeczpospolita.
According to the police, he had a weapons license and no criminal record. In the shooting he used a civilian version of the AR-15 rifle, but he also carried a Glock pistol. Both were registered in his name, but he also had an arsenal in the trunk that belonged to his father. Other weapons were also found in the family home. They were both fans of sports shooting.
The young man had studied FP and was a turner. His classmates have told the media that he was reserved. Someone has said that he liked to “provoke.”
The crisis cabinet has called another meeting this Sunday in which the Prime Minister, Donald Tusk, participated. Some still question whether the police acted quickly. The Ministry of the Interior has published a schedule with its response and has assured that 30 police units were activated and in less than three minutes the exchange of shots was recorded during the arrest of the suspect. The Government and many citizens consider the two agents who neutralized him heroes.
Fear has reached the entire country. In view of the nationalist demonstrations that take place on November 11, Independence Day, security has been reinforced. But also, the mayor of Warsaw, Rafal Trzaskowski, announced that the capital will install concrete barriers on tourist streets in the center. And other cities, such as Wroclaw, also reacted by increasing surveillance after the Krakow attack.
