Two Polish police officers who confronted and stopped the gunman responsible for Saturday’s deadly attack in Kraków are being hailed as heroes, as new details emerge of how two off-duty surgeons rushed to save them after the shooting.
Senior police officers Jakub Kulik and Artur Morański were both seriously wounded while pursuing the attacker, who had opened fire on people in Kraków’s historic Main Market Square on 7 November.
Despite being shot, Kulik continued confronting the gunman and ultimately brought him down, ending an attack that had already claimed six lives.
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What happened next was an extraordinary coincidence.
Just metres from the final confrontation, two experienced surgeons from Kraków’s University Hospital had been enjoying lunch with their families.
When the gunfire stopped, Professor Michał Pędziwiatr and Dr Mateusz Wierdak rushed to the scene.
Their actions, together with those of police officers, emergency responders and hospital teams, would become a remarkable story of courage and lifesaving teamwork amid Poland’s national tragedy.
Two officers who refused to retreat
Jakub Kulik and Artur Morański were serving together in Kraków when the emergency calls began shortly after 3pm.
According to the Polish government’s official account of the police response, the first report of gunfire reached emergency services at 3.00pm and 15 seconds.
By 3.03pm, officers were exchanging shots with the attacker.
The gunman had driven through the Main Market Square firing at people before fleeing towards the intersection of Dietla and Stradomska streets.
Kulik and Morański confronted him there.
Both were hit by gunfire.
According to TVP Info’s reporting, including accounts from fellow officers, Kulik continued fighting despite his injuries, firing at the gunman and bringing him down before collapsing himself.
The attacker was wounded and apprehended.
It was an intervention that Polish authorities believe prevented more deaths.
Prime Minister Donald Tusk publicly identified both officers and described them as heroes who had probably saved many lives.
Justice Minister Waldemar Żurek also credited their rapid response with preventing further casualties.
Who are Jakub Kulik and Artur Morański?
As the country learned the identities of the wounded officers, details of their lives outside the police began to emerge.
Kulik, from Bielsko-Biała in southern Poland, previously served in the Polish Army’s 18th Airborne Battalion.
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He is also a volunteer firefighter with the Leszczyny fire brigade, having joined the organisation while still a teenager.
He entered the police in 2022 and was serving in Kraków’s First Police Station.
Morański comes from Powroźnik, a village in southern Poland near the Slovak border. He joined the Kraków police approximately two years ago.
Colleagues described the two men as a close-knit patrol team accustomed to working together.
The profiles published by TVP World and Polish regional media paint a picture of two relatively young officers whose ordinary working day became an extraordinary test of courage.
Both sustained serious gunshot injuries and required emergency surgery.
Two surgeons were having lunch nearby
As the gunfight unfolded, Professor Michał Pędziwiatr and Dr Mateusz Wierdak were leaving a nearby restaurant after lunch with their families.
The two men are experienced surgeons at the University Hospital in Kraków.
They had no reason to expect that their day off would suddenly turn into a medical emergency.
In interviews with Polish media, Pędziwiatr recalled that his son alerted him to the gunfire after seeing people falling to the ground.
The doctors initially took shelter. Once the shooting had stopped, they ran towards the injured.
They found wounded police officers and the suspected attacker lying in the street.
At first, they did not know who had been responsible for the shooting.
Speaking to Radio Kraków about the emergency response, Pędziwiatr explained that their immediate task was to assess the casualties and control severe bleeding.
They had no operating theatre, specialist equipment or full protective gear.
What they did have was medical experience — and people around them willing to help.
A scarf, bare hands and a desperate fight to stop the bleeding
Wierdak concentrated on Kulik, who had sustained severe chest injuries during the confrontation.
The officer was losing blood rapidly.
In an interview with Fakt, Wierdak described how bystanders initially gave him a scarf, which he used to help manage the bleeding.
He subsequently received medical supplies from officers at the scene.
Working without gloves in the first moments, he applied pressure and packed dressings into the wound to limit the blood loss.
Pędziwiatr later said he believed his colleague’s intervention had made the difference between life and death.
Without the bleeding being controlled, he estimated, Kulik might not have survived until the ambulance arrived.
This was not advanced surgery performed in the street. It was immediate emergency care, using the resources available, to keep a critically injured patient alive long enough to reach hospital.
The doctors also stressed that they did not work alone.
Other officers secured the area, police first-aiders assisted, and bystanders helped provide materials and support.
As Pędziwiatr explained, the police response was organised and professional, allowing medical care to continue while the scene was secured.
A crucial decision about hospital treatment
While Wierdak worked to control Kulik’s bleeding, Pędziwiatr helped assess other injured people and coordinate their onward treatment.
That included medical attention for the wounded suspect.
The surgeons made clear that their responsibility was to treat people in immediate medical need, regardless of whether they were victims or suspected perpetrators.
Pędziwiatr also helped determine which hospital was best equipped to treat the most seriously wounded officer.
He argued that Kulik should be taken to Kraków’s John Paul II Specialist Hospital, which had the specialist thoracic and cardiac surgical expertise needed for severe chest injuries.
In his account to Wirtualna Polska, he described contacting the hospital in advance so its surgical team could prepare.
That preparation meant the hospital could organise the necessary treatment before the officer arrived.
The operations themselves were carried out by hospital surgeons on duty.
Pędziwiatr has explicitly corrected early reports suggesting that he personally operated on one of the officers after assisting at the scene.
In a subsequent interview with KR24, he emphasised that the operating teams and medical personnel working inside the hospitals deserved equal recognition.
Both officers regain consciousness
Kulik suffered three gunshot wounds and underwent lifesaving surgery.
Morański also sustained serious injuries, including a chest wound, and required an operation.
Both officers were placed in medically induced comas during their treatment.
By Sunday afternoon, however, there was encouraging news.
Prosecutor Tomasz Waszczuk confirmed that both police officers had been brought out of their medically induced comas.
The latest reports from TVP Info said Kulik’s condition remained serious but stable.
Both men remained in hospital under specialist care.
Their recovery is far from complete, but the development has offered hope to their families, colleagues and the wider country.
The injuries also prompted appeals for blood donations, while local communities gathered to pray for the officers’ recovery.
Poland recognises the bravery of its police officers
Prime Minister Tusk’s public praise was followed by further expressions of recognition from across Poland.
Kraków Mayor Łukasz Gibała announced that he had requested honorary citizenship of the city for Kulik and Morański.
The mayor’s proposal, reported by TVP Kraków, would recognise their actions during the shooting.
The distinction has been requested, rather than already awarded.
Meanwhile, Kulik’s fellow volunteer firefighters in Bielsko-Biała expressed pride in their colleague, while residents of Morański’s home region held prayers for his recovery.
Their intervention has become an important part of the national response to an attack that left six people dead and numerous others injured.
The doctors who do not want to be called heroes
For Pędziwiatr and Wierdak, the attention has been uncomfortable.
Both have resisted being portrayed as exceptional figures.
They have repeatedly emphasised that they were carrying out the responsibilities of their profession and that police officers, other medics and ordinary bystanders all contributed to the response.
In his interview with Radio Kraków, Pędziwiatr explained that he simply acted as he would hope someone else would act if he were the person lying injured in the street.
He has also directed particular praise towards Kulik, who continued confronting the attacker despite being wounded, and Morański, who risked his life alongside him.
The surgeons say the efforts of the medical teams who later treated the injured, including staff who volunteered to assist outside their normal working hours, should not be overlooked.
Their account illustrates how many people contributed to the response, from armed officers stopping the immediate threat to doctors and emergency workers caring for the wounded.
Courage amid tragedy
The Kraków shooting remains one of the darkest events in Poland’s recent history.
Six people were killed in the Main Market Square attack. Investigators have also linked the suspected gunman to the deaths of three relatives found at his family home.
As Poland observes national mourning, the stories of Kulik, Morański, Pędziwiatr and Wierdak have provided another perspective on the tragedy.
Two officers confronted a heavily armed attacker, knowing they were putting their lives in danger.
Two surgeons happened to be nearby and responded when the gunfire stopped.
Other officers, first-aiders, bystanders and hospital teams helped turn those first moments into sustained medical care.
The attack left families grieving and a city in mourning. But the actions of those who confronted the danger and helped the wounded have also given Poland a powerful example of courage, professionalism and solidarity.
