Prague university gunman ‘killed’ father before mass shooting.
The Prague’s Charles University gunman, who killed 14 people and left more than 20 injured in the Czech Republic’s worst mass shooting, murdered his father before shooting his classmates in the rampage on Thursday, The Telegraph reported. Czech Republic Police has identified the attacker as a 24-year-old student David Kozak, it reported citing the local media.
Police, however, didn’t immediately provide details about a possible motive for the mass shooting at the building located near the Vltava River in Jan Palach Square. Czech interior minister Vit Rakusan said investigators do not suspect a link to any extremist ideology or groups.
David Kozak was studying Polish history in Prague’s Charles University. Prague Police chief Martin Vondrasek described the shooter as an excellent student with no criminal record but didn’t provide any other information.
The gunman suffered “devastating injuries” but it wasn’t clear if he killed himself or was shot to death in an exchange of gunfire with officers, Vondrasek said, adding that there was “nothing to suggest that he had an accomplice.”
David Kozak legally owned several guns — police said he was heavily armed and was carrying a lot of ammunition — and that what he did was “well thought out, a horrible act,” Vondrasek said.
Czech media claimed that Kozak created social media content wherein he engaged in contemplations of suicide and mass killings in the lead-up to the attacks.
The police, the local media claimed, said the gunman was inspired by “a terrible event abroad”. In one post, David Kozak cited a 14-year-old Russian school shooter who killed one classmate and wounded five others as an inspiration.
Vondrasek said police believe the gunman killed his father earlier Thursday in his hometown of Hostoun, just west of Prague, and that he had also been planning to kill himself. He didn’t elaborate.
Later Thursday, Vondrasek said that based on a search of his home, the gunman was also suspected in the killing of another man and his two-month-old daughter on December 15, in Prague.
The gunman suffered “devastating injuries” but it wasn’t clear if he killed himself or was shot to death in an exchange of gunfire with officers, Vondrasek said, adding that there was “nothing to suggest that he had an accomplice.”
Students locked themselves in classrooms or ran out of the building with their hands over their heads after shots rang out, Czech television reported. TV footage showed people trying to hide by standing on the ledge of the building. Some found shelter in the nearby seat of the Prague Philharmonic. Overall, 25 people were wounded, including 10 seriously.
Dozens of police cars and police officers, including some with machine guns, cordoned off an area around the scene, which is in the heart of Prague’s famed centre. The police scheduled a news briefing for 11 am in Prague on Friday.
