Planned school attacks as a teenager - now the 24-year-old is suspected of the terrorist act in Krakow

The information about the 24-year-old man comes from neighbors and former schoolmates that the Polish tabloid Fakt and Radio Eska published on Sunday morning.

As is often the case with young men who are quietly radicalized, few felt they knew him deeply.

- We used to joke that he would kill someone one day, but no one really took it seriously, says one of his classmates at the vocational school he attended in his hometown of Ostrowiec Swietokrzyski, which is located just under 15 kilometers northeast of Krakow.

The background to the macabre joke was, not least in view of what has now happened, that the 24-year-old sometimes drew during school hours. The motives were always violent. He is said to have said himself that he thought about attacking the school where he attended.

He is described as quiet at school. The exception was the history lessons.

- I think he was very interested in history, especially military history and war, says a classmate.

The suspect grew up with his parents and a sister. They are described by neighbors as happy, open and friendly, something that stands in stark contrast to the unapproachable 24-year-old, who often had the hood on errands and rarely said hello.

What the relationships within the family looked like no one dares to comment on. But according to the closest neighbor, the 53-year-old father and son shared an interest: They often spent Sundays together at a nearby shooting range. The father had a license for two different sports shooting weapons.

Now the 53-year-old father is dead, as well as the 52-year-old mother and the 20-year-old sister. They were found shot to death in the home when the police searched the home shortly after the murder, where six more people lost their lives in central Krakow. The suspicion is that the 24-year-old killed his family before he went to Krakow by car.

When the suspect drove into the center of Krakow just before 3pm on Saturday, he was masked and wearing military clothing and a bulletproof vest. According to Polish police, he used an AR-15-type semi-automatic rifle during the attack. In the car he was traveling in, however, there were several weapons and a large amount of ammunition.

He began by shooting from the car, apparently at random people. The police quickly took up the chase and during the 24-year-old collided with another car at an intersection. There he got out and opened fire on the police.

He himself was shot and fell down in the street. While he was lying there, one of the officers approached and fired at him at close range, something that can be seen in several video clips circulating online. Now the 24-year-old is being treated for his gunshot wounds in hospital.

Interior Minister Marcin Kierwinski came out relatively quickly and said that everything indicated that the man acted alone. Suspicions about his fascination with far-right ideologies and radical views were also raised at an early stage. The motive and circumstances surrounding the attack are now being investigated by the police as well as prosecutors and various special units.

The attack is classified as a suspected terrorist crime. According to prosecutor Tomasz Waszczuk, the police intend to question the 24-year-old as soon as possible. His state of health should not be an obstacle at the moment.