Follow-Up: Polish Prosecutors Open Terrorism Investigation into Krakow Shooting; Gunman Faces Up to Life in Prison

WARSAW — Poland's National Prosecutor's Office announced on November 8 that it has opened an investigation into the Krakow Main Market Square shooting as a terrorist offence. The inquiry is being run by the office's Malopolska branch, which handles organised crime and corruption cases.

Tomasz Waszczuk, a spokesman for the branch, said the investigation covers two sets of acts: the gunman's killing of six people in Krakow on November 7 and his attempted killing of many others, including police officers carrying out public-safety duties; and the killing of three people at his home in Ostrowiec Swietokrzyski. Prosecutor General Waldemar Zurek emphasised that this division handles terrorist crimes and that the state must respond to such violence decisively and efficiently, using all available legal instruments.

Both sets of acts carry a potential penalty of life imprisonment, prosecutors said. Prosecutors are preparing six murder charges over the Krakow dead; the number could rise to nine if investigators establish that the gunman also killed the three people at the home. Waszczuk said the suspect has not yet been formally arrested because of his medical condition, which required hospital treatment, but remains under constant surveillance, and that the evidence collected so far does not indicate that anyone else was involved. Malopolska Governor Krzysztof Jan Kleczar said on Sunday that the Krakow victims ranged from a 69-year-old Polish woman to a 32-year-old British man.

Poland began two days of national mourning for the victims on November 8, and Krakow is separately observing municipal mourning through November 11.

Related: Follow-Up: Poland Begins National Mourning for Krakow Shooting Victims as Prosecutors Confirm Three Bodies at Gunman's Home Were His Parents and Sister

(Source: Poland's National Prosecutor's Office)

Source: Poland's National Prosecutor's Office

Published by GSM · USA (original Chinese edition)

Photo: 图：波兰克拉科夫主市场广场与纺织会馆（资料图，非事发现场照片）。照片：Jorge Lascar，CC BY 2.0，经 Wikimedia Commons。 / Photo: Main Market Square and the Cloth Hall in Krakow, Poland (file photo, not a photo of the scene). Photo by Jorge Lascar, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons.