Polish prosecutors say ‘too early’ to tell if Kraków gunman was motivated by political ideology

Polish prosecutors have said they do not currently have any evidence tying the man who killed six people and injured 16 in a rare mass shooting in Kraków to any particularly political ideology.

The 24-year-old Polish national died in hospital early on Monday after being critically injured in a shootout with police officers as they apprehended him after the attack in the city’s busy market square on Saturday afternoon.

Soon after the attack, the bodies of the gunman’s parents and sister were found at the family home in Ostrowiec Świętokrzyski, a town about 100 miles north-east of Kraków. Police said they had probably died of gunshot wounds.

Poland’s interior minister, Marcin Kierwiński, said on Saturday that the gunman, named in multiple reports as Michał Oksiński, was fascinated with far-right ideologies and held “very radical” and “ultra-nationalistic” views.

Polish prosecutors opened a terrorism investigation, which the justice minister, Waldemar Żurek, said would continue despite the gunman’s death and would aim to establish if he had acted alone or had been inspired by any group.

However, at a press conference on Monday, prosecutors said that there was no evidence tying the suspect to any particular political bent.

“We do not have findings that we could, in a responsible way, categorically state that he was inspired by any particular ideology,” the national prosecutor’s office spokesperson, Przemysław Nowak, said.

“It is far too early to comment on the motives … We have not found any obvious symbols that are generally associated with a particular political movement, whether far right or far left,” he added.

An interior ministry spokesperson told Polish radio that the “many emblems and patches” on Oksinski’s clothing were being analysed as part of the investigation.

Żurek also called for “restraint” earlier on Monday amid the ongoing investigation. “Evidence is ​being collected, ​but I will not ​show or disclose it. I ask for restraint,” he told Radio ‌Zet.

Wearing military-style clothing and a bulletproof vest, the gunman drove at high speed into the square in the heart of the old town, which is usually packed with tourists, and started shooting at random in a “wild ride” around the square, Kraków police spokesperson Katarzyna Cisło said.

The shooting has shocked a country that had been considered safer than many of its European neighbours, and has deepened concern after several school stabbings in October that left one woman dead and which officials said were linked to extremist content online.

Among the six victims were a 32-year-old British man and an Austrian woman aged 51. The other four victims were Polish nationals.

Of the 16 injured, 15 were in a stable condition as of late Sunday, including two police officers who were brought out of medically induced comas earlier in the day. Five of the injured were from Britain, Austria, Germany, Portugal and Russia.

Police said the suspect, who had no criminal record and held a firearms licence, initially continued shooting even after he was wounded by police during the exchange of fire. The two injured police officers – Jakub Kulik, a former paratrooper and volunteer firefighter, and Artur Morański– were hailed as heroes for their rapid response and for preventing further casualties.

Police confirmed on Sunday that three people found dead at the gunman’s home were his father, 53, mother, 52, and sister, 21.

Mourners have left candles in tribute to the victims in the square, which reopened late on Sunday. Flags across the country were lowered to half mast during two days of national mourning, as were European flags outside the European Commission in Brussels “in solidarity with the Polish people”, the commission said.