Krakow Mass Shooting Victims Honored By Thousands In Silent March
Poland’s rival leaders walked side by side through Krakow to honor the dead. The gunman died in hospital, and investigators say they still do not know why he did it.
KRAKOW, Poland, Nov 10 – Thousands of people walked in silence through Krakow on Monday evening to honor the victims of the Krakow mass shooting, the worst attack of its kind Poland has ever seen.
The country’s president and prime minister walked with them.
On Saturday, a gunman opened fire from his car in the city’s historic main square. He killed four women and two men. Officials said several people were wounded, including two police officers and the gunman himself.
The marchers followed part of the route he drove while shooting. They stopped to light candles at the spots where people died.
“Tonight in Cracow thousands of Poles gathered to pay tribute,” Prime Minister Donald Tusk wrote on social media.
Tusk and President Karol Nawrocki do not get along. But on Monday they stood side by side, holding candles in the square. Deputy Prime Minister Wladyslaw Kosiniak-Kamysz said it showed Poles can still pull together in hard times, even when they disagree.
The gunman died in hospital on Monday. Police had shot and arrested him about three minutes after the first reports came in. Prosecutors named him as Michal Oksinski, 24, from the town of Ostrowiec Swietokrzyski, north of Krakow.
The bodies of his father, mother and sister were found in the family home on Saturday. Officials say he likely killed them too.
So far, one of the dead from the square has been named as a British man. Five foreigners were among the wounded. They came from Austria, Germany, Portugal, Russia and Britain.
Witnesses described panic. One man told a news website he saw shots fired from the driver’s window of a car. He ran into a police station on the square and found it full of people hiding on the floor.
Another man, aged 67, told Reuters that he saw a dark-colored car appear before the driver opened fire on a group of people.
“If we had been two minutes earlier, we might have been shot,” he said.
Attention has now turned to the motive behind the attack.
On Saturday, Interior Minister Marcin Kierwinski said that everything indicated the gunman may have been influenced by far-right ideology. However, by Monday, the government appeared to soften its position. A government spokesman said it would be premature to comment before the facts were fully established.
The nationalist opposition has rejected any connection to far-right extremism. Jaroslaw Kaczynski, leader of the Law and Justice party, dismissed the claim as false: “A blatant lie,” Kaczynski said.
The National Prosecutor’s Office said it has not yet established the attacker’s motive. Spokesman Przemyslaw Nowak said a yellow flag featuring a snake and the words “Don’t tread on me” was found in the gunman’s room.
The flag, known as the Gadsden flag, dates back to the American Revolution. Nowak said it is commonly associated with ideas of liberty or rebellion and is not widely recognized as a symbol of extremism.
An Interior Ministry spokeswoman said that authorities were still examining the numerous patches on the gunman’s clothing.
The attacker was dressed in military-style clothing and used military-grade weapons. Police said he possessed an AR-15 rifle and held a firearms license. His father also held one.
Nowak said four weapons and several hundred rounds of ammunition were recovered from the gunman’s car and person. He added that at least several dozen shots, and possibly several hundred, had been fired. Additional firearms were later discovered at the family home.
The investigation will continue despite the gunman’s death. Justice Minister Waldemar Zurek said authorities will seek to determine whether he acted alone or was influenced by a larger group.
He said evidence was being collected but would not yet be made public: “I ask for restraint,” Zurek said.
He also announced that the government would review the regulations governing firearms licenses.
Police remain on alert for potential copycat attacks. Poland’s cybercrime bureau said it had detained six individuals: five Polish nationals and one Ukrainian for posting threats or alarming content online following the attack. The suspects range in age from 15 to 36.
The two wounded police officers have regained consciousness. Prime Minister Donald Tusk said that when Officer Artur Moranski woke up, his first question was about his colleague, Jakub Kulik. He asked whether “Kuba” was alive.
Poland observed two days of national mourning on Sunday and Monday. In Krakow, mourning will continue until Wednesday.
The attack has deeply shaken a country that has long viewed itself as safer than many of its Western European neighbors. It follows a series of school stabbings in October, which officials said were linked to violent online content.
