A gunman who killed six people in central Krakow in Poland on Saturday has died in the hospital, police said on Monday.
The shooter opened fire from a moving car just after 3 p.m. local time on Nov. 7 at Main Market Square, an urban area in the southern city of Krakow. He was eventually shot by police and transported to a hospital. Fifteen people, including two police officers, were injured.
Authorities said on Sunday they believe the gunman had also earlier killed his parents and sister at their home, bringing the death toll to nine.
Poland’s National Prosecutors Office officially named Michal Oksinski on Monday as the killer and said that his parents and sister were killed by two gunshots to the head each. He then went to Krakow by car.
It said that a total of four firearms were secured in the car, two AR-15 rifles and two other guns, as well as several hundred rounds of ammunition of different calibers. Four mobile phones were also secured in the perpetrator’s car. Activities are underway to gain access to the data stored on them, it said.
During the inspection of the apartment, seven more firearms were found.
Authorities said that Oksinski had obtained a firearms permit in January, and bought the first weapon in March.
The Jan Matejko Academy of Fine Arts in Krakow confirmed on Sunday that Magdalena Oksinska, a third-year painting student, was among the victims and had been killed alongside her parents.
Both national and local police confirmed the gunman’s death.
“We would like to inform you that the perpetrator of the tragic events died in hospital early this morning,” police in Poland’s southern Malopolska region said in a Nov. 9 post on X.
Krakow’s official municipal website on Monday said that the charges were brought against him after his death.
The attack happened on Slawkowska Street, a tourist hotspot on the northern edge of Main Market Square, about a quarter of a mile long and lined with cafes, hotels, and museums.
The shooter is a 24-year-old Polish citizen who allegedly acted alone. He wore a military-style uniform with a bulletproof vest and used a military-type long gun in the attack, according to Katarzyna Cislo, a spokesperson for the Krakow police.
Polish public broadcaster TVP reported remarks from the minister of the interior and administration, Marcin Kierwinski, at a Saturday press conference, during which he said the shooter held very radical views and was fascinated by far-right ideologies.
“The police have no basis to conclude that there were more than one perpetrator of this terrible massacre. It appears there was only one perpetrator,” Kierwinski said.
The conservative opposition criticized Kierwinski’s comments about the shooter’s motive.
“Yet Minister Kierwinski, as one of his first pieces of information, even before the authorities entered the perpetrator’s apartment, stated that the attacker was fascinated by right-wing ideologies,” Law & Justice party leader and former Prime Minister Jaroslaw Kaczynski said in a Nov. 8 post on X. “This turned out to be a blatant lie.”
On Monday, government officials appeared to backtrack on their initial comments.
“Until the matter is fully clarified and the authorities are in possession of complete information, it is best to refrain from making comments, even if there are some initial indications,” government spokesman Adam Szlapka told TVN24 on Monday.
Justice Minister Waldemar Zurek said on Monday the investigation aims to establish whether he acted alone or was inspired by a group.
“Evidence is being collected, but I will not show or disclose it. I ask for restraint,” Zurek told Radio Zet.
In a press conference on Monday Krakow Prosecutor’s Office spokesman Przemyslaw Nowak said that it was too early to say anything about the killer’s motives and ideological affiliation but noted that he had the “Don’t Tread On Me” Gadsden flag on his bedroom wall.
“We state categorically that it is too early to talk about motivation,” Nowak said in comments reported in the Polish newspaper Rzeczpospolita.
“It is too early to talk about motives, inspiration or ideology,” he said. “Prosecutors visited the apartment in Ostrowiec Swietokrzyski where he lived. The search of his room lasted from overnight until late Sunday afternoon. One prosecutor spent 13 hours in the apartment. There was nothing so clear-cut that we could point to it as unambiguous symbolism.”
Nowak said that they do not have information that would allow them “to draw firm conclusions about his motivation.”
“I can say that a yellow flag with a snake, known as the Gadsden flag, was hanging on the wall in his room,” he added.
He said that this is a “historical flag from the 18th century, and its symbolism has various meanings, liberty, rebellion against authority.”
“There were no obvious symbols associated with the far-right or far-left,” the spokesman added. “This flag is not linked to extremism; it is used for various purposes. That snake appears on the cover of one of Metallica’s albums.”
In a statement on Nov. 7, Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk called it “sad that we have to meet on such a tragic day.”
“We live it in many dimensions—human and social. So far in Poland we have not had such drastic cases of terrorism.”
Jacki Thrapp and Reuters contributed to this report.
Correction: An earlier version of this article misstated the date of Jaroslaw Kaczynski’s X post. The Epoch Times regrets the error.
