In the worst mass shooting in Czech history, on Thursday, the 21st of December, a 24-year-old Czech student shot dead his father, then at Prague Charles University killing 14 people and wounding 25 others before possibly killing himself, reports Reuters.
The government decided at a special cabinet meeting with President Petr Pavel that a day of mourning would be declared across the country on the 23rd of December to commemorate the dead. On Thursday evening, people lit candles and left flowers near the shooting site.
Pavel expressed his “deep sadness and helpless anger at the unnecessary loss of many young lives in this tragic incident” and offered his deepest condolences to the families of the victims and to all those affected.
Police received information that the suspect intended to travel to Prague to take his own life.
The shooter’s father was found dead shortly afterwards.
Police evacuated the Faculty of Philosophy at Charles University, where the shooter was expected, but responded within minutes to reports of gunfire in the main building of the faculty.
Police Chief Martin Vondrasek cited unconfirmed information that the shooter was inspired by a terrorist attack in Russia in the autumn and added that the weapons in the shooter’s possession were legal. Police also found a large arsenal of weapons in the building of Charles University in Prague where the shooting took place.
Vondrasek said that the “horrific act” was pre-mediated.
Vondrasek also said the attacker was also suspected of the murders of another man and his two-month-old baby daughter, who were found shot dead in a forest in a village near Prague last week.
The shooter’s death was most likely a suicide, but authorities are also investigating whether he could have been killed by police who returned fire, Vondrasek added, as per Reuters.
Police said he was a student with honours with no previous criminal record and that he acted alone, and asked not to reveal the man’s identity, but his name, reported by Czech media, matched a police search report.
‼️ The Prague shooter may have run his channel on Telegram, where he posted his plans about “school shooting and possibly suicide”
Czech media published the name of the suspect – David Kozak. According to preliminary data, the shooter is a 24-year-old student from the city of… pic.twitter.com/8VeBGTxWnc
— NEXTA (@nexta_tv) December 21, 2023
Interior Minister Vit Rakusan stated that the shooting had no connection with international terrorism.
“We always believed that it did not concern us. But it turns out that, unfortunately, our world is also changing,” Prague Mayor Bohuslav Svoboda told Czech television.
Mass shootings are rare in the Czech Republic. Notable incidents include a shooting at a hospital in Ostrava in 2019 where the shooter killed six people and a shooting at a restaurant in 2015 where man killed eight people, according to Reuters.
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