The 24-year-old suspect in Saturday’s mass shooting in Kraków has died in hospital, Polish police confirmed on Monday morning. His death comes two days after six people were killed and 15 others injured in the city’s historic Main Market Square, but prosecutors say the investigation will continue.
The man, identified in Polish reporting as Michał O., died at approximately 4.30am on 9 November after undergoing several operations for injuries sustained during an armed confrontation with police.
The Małopolska Police announcement confirmed that the suspect had died in the early hours of Monday. Kraków’s municipal authorities also confirmed his death.
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Krzysztof Jan Klęczar, governor of the Małopolska region, said doctors had performed at least three operations in an attempt to save the man’s life.
The suspect had remained critically ill since Saturday, when two police officers confronted him as he fled the scene of the shooting.
Prosecutors say investigation will continue
The suspect’s death means he can no longer be questioned or formally charged, but prosecutors have stressed that their wider investigation remains active.
Eryk Stasielak, a prosecutor with Poland’s National Prosecutor’s Office, told the Polish Press Agency that investigators would continue examining the suspect’s motives, possible connections and the evidence collected from both crime scenes.
According to the prosecutor’s remarks reported by PAP, procedural steps directed personally against the deceased man, including bringing charges or requesting pretrial detention, will no longer proceed.
However, investigators will continue questioning witnesses and analysing forensic and electronic evidence.
The investigation includes three additional deaths at the suspect’s family home in Ostrowiec Świętokrzyski, where police discovered the bodies of his parents and 21-year-old sister.
Prosecutors believe the same person was responsible for the killings in both locations, although their full circumstances have yet to be established.
Post-mortem examinations of all nine victims were scheduled to begin on Monday and could take two days because of the complexity of the gunshot injuries.
One police officer remains seriously injured
The suspect’s death was confirmed as authorities provided a further update on those injured during Saturday’s attack.
According to Governor Klęczar, 15 wounded victims remained in six Kraków hospitals on Monday morning. Fourteen were in a stable condition, while one police officer remained seriously injured.
The officer, who was wounded while confronting the gunman, had been brought out of a medically induced coma.
Two officers were injured during the intervention that stopped the attack. Their actions have drawn national praise, alongside the emergency medical assistance provided by two surgeons who happened to be nearby.
Poland-24 previously reported on the officers’ intervention and the surgeons who helped save their lives.
Six killed in attack on Kraków’s historic square
The shooting took place shortly after 3pm on Saturday, 7 November, when a gunman drove into Kraków’s Main Market Square and opened fire on people in the busy pedestrian area.
Six people were killed: four Polish nationals, a British citizen and an Austrian citizen.
The attack also injured foreign nationals, including people from Britain, Germany, Portugal, Russia and Austria.
Police subsequently discovered the bodies of the suspect’s father, mother and sister at his family home in Ostrowiec Świętokrzyski. Those deaths are being investigated as part of the same case.
The National Prosecutor’s Office opened an investigation on Sunday, treating the Kraków attack as an offence of a terrorist nature under Polish law.
Authorities are examining possible extremist influences, but have not established a definitive motive or confirmed that the suspect acted on behalf of an organised group.
The suspect’s death comes during two days of national mourning in Poland, declared following the attack.
Residents have gathered in Kraków to lay flowers and candles in memory of the victims, while the city’s famous hourly trumpet call was temporarily suspended as a mark of respect.
The main Poland-24 report on the Kraków shooting contains the full chronology of the incident and the ongoing investigation.
