Polish Gunman Who Killed Nine, Including Members of His Family, Dies in Hospital

[Financial News] A gunman in his 20s who opened indiscriminate fire in downtown Krakow, Poland’s second-largest city, killing a total of nine people, including members of his own family, has died while receiving treatment in hospital.
According to major foreign media outlets, including Euronews, on the 9th (local time), Krzysztof Klęczar, governor of the Małopolskie Voivodeship, said terrorism suspect Michał Oksiński, 24, had undergone at least three operations at a hospital in Krakow but failed to recover and died at around 4:30 a.m. that day.
Earlier, on the afternoon of the 7th, Oksiński drove to the central square in the heart of Krakow’s Old Town wearing military-style combat fatigues and a bulletproof vest, then opened indiscriminate fire on passersby. He stopped his car at various points around the square and sprayed gunfire with an automatic weapon. After exchanging fire with police while fleeing, he was arrested with serious injuries.
The disaster, recorded as the worst mass shooting since Poland’s transition to democracy in 1989, left six passersby dead on the central square alone: four Poles, one Briton and one Austrian. It was confirmed that the 15 injured included five foreign nationals and two police officers who were trying to subdue the suspect.
Separately, three people, including the suspect’s parents and younger sister, were found dead from gunshot wounds at his home in Ostrowiec, about 150 kilometers northeast of Krakow. Authorities believe the suspect killed his family first, then traveled to Krakow and committed further crimes.
The suspect, who had worked as a lathe operator, had no criminal record. It emerged that he had previously been active in a shooting club with his father and had legally possessed firearms with authorization from the authorities. Police searched the vehicle used in the attack and the suspect’s home, seizing a total of 11 firearms and a large quantity of ammunition.
There were also some differences among government ministries over the motive. The Interior Ministry described the suspect as deeply immersed in far-right ideas and having ‘very radical and extreme nationalist tendencies,’ and classified the incident as far-right terrorism. Polish prosecutors, by contrast, said they had ‘not yet found grounds to conclude that he was directly influenced by a particular ideology.’ While taking a cautious stance, they stressed that they would continue investigating to establish the precise motive, regardless of the suspect’s death.


[email protected] Park Ji-hyun Reporter