2023 Prague Shooting

On 21 December 2023, fourteen people were killed and 22 injured in a mass shooting by a postgraduate history student within the main Faculty of Arts building of Charles University in central Prague, Czech Republic. Another three people were injured when the perpetrator opened fire towards the streets from the faculty's fourth-floor rooftop terrace. After having been engaged by the police, the 24-year-old perpetrator killed himself. Before the attack, his father was found dead at his home in Hostouň.

At the time of the shooting, the perpetrator was one in a pool of about 4,000 suspects in a double murder case that took place six days earlier, away, in the Klánovice Forest. The lead investigator confirmed that the police had not yet reviewed the perpetrator's potential as a suspect in the earlier killings when the Prague shootings took place, but evidence found in the latter event did link the two incidents.

The attack was the deadliest mass murder in the Czech Republic since its independence in 1993, surpassing the 2020 Bohumín arson attack.

Events

Klánovice Forest murders

On 15 December 2023, a 32-year-old father and his two-month-old daughter in a stroller were shot dead in on the eastern outskirts of Prague, approximately away from the later Prague shootings. The police conducted a detailed search of the entire forest with hundreds of officers, while a special task force was set up in order to find the perpetrator. On 20 December, police said that they had no leads in the case but were continuing to search for the perpetrator. The firearms website zbrojnice.com noted a similarity of the case with the 2005 "Forest Killer" murders, in which a former police officer killed three random victims in forests in preparation for a planned mass murder in the Prague Metro, which was prevented by his early arrest; the article ended with an appeal to readers to remain vigilant and carry their concealed firearms.

Five hours after the attack at Charles University, the police released information that they had found evidence in David Kozák's house linking him to the Klánovice Forest murders. At a press conference on 22 December, the chief detective of Prague's 1st General Crime Unit stated that Kozák had been one of about 4,000 suspects in the Klánovice Forest case. However, because he lived in the Central Bohemian Region, they were a few days short of being able to prevent the shootings. Central Bohemia is a separate region from the city of Prague, and each region in the country has a separate police directorate. Later that day, the police confirmed that a firearm found at Kozák's house had been ballistically matched with the bullets used in the Klánovice Forest murders. On 27 December 2023, reported that police investigators had found a letter in Kozák's home in which he confessed to the murders in Klánovice Forest.

Hostouň patricide and police manhunt

On 21 December 2023 at 12:20 CET, the Central Bohemian Police received two phone calls, from Kozák's mother and a female friend, stating that Kozák was planning to take his own life and that he was en route from his hometown of Hostouň to Prague. At 12:45, the police entered Kozák's home, and found the body of his father, who was killed by three shots into the head. A thorough search of the house was hindered by improvised explosive devices, which were decommissioned by specialists later that day. The police discovered that Kozák was a student of the Faculty of Arts at Charles University. A search warrant was issued and published immediately afterwards; the warrant indicated that Kozák was armed and dangerous. Police also commenced a security operation at Václav Havel Airport Prague, where Kozák worked, and where his father worked in the airport security department.

Prague police officers entered the main building of the Faculty of Arts on Jan Palach Square at 13:30 CET, where they searched some of the premises and also learned that Kozák was supposed to attend a lecture at 14:00 in a different building on Celetná street. As the Central Bohemian Police Directorate had issued the search warrant for an armed person likely to take his own life, the officers left the main building after 14:20 without taking any action there. Multiple police units were sent to evacuate the building of the Faculty of Arts on Celetná street, where they believed Kozák would be present in a lecture room; the evacuation was finished at 14:22. Kozák was not found in the building or in its vicinity.

At 14:38, Kozák's phone was turned on in the area of close to the Old Town Square. The manhunt thus continued in this area, including a nearby metro station. The area is about five minutes walk from the main Faculty of Arts building.

Charles University shooting

At 14:59 CET, as the manhunt continued, the police received their first calls about a shooting taking place in the main Faculty of Arts building on Jan Palach Square, a twelve-minute walk from the evacuated building on Celetná. The perpetrator opened fire inside the building's fourth floor corridors and classrooms, while staff and students barricaded themselves in rooms using furniture. Several of those inside fled the building by jumping onto a rooftop terrace from the exterior ledges.

The first officer, a criminal police detective, entered the building at 15:02 CET who was joined by uniformed policemen at 15:05 CET. After the arrival of the police, no gunshots were heard from within the building. Based on information given by students, the police searched for the perpetrator on the upper floors, while other officers started evacuating students from the lower floors to the Rudolfinum across the street.

Police officers were searching for the perpetrator on the upper floors when they were alerted at 15:11 that he was shooting at people from the outside, with mistaken information that the perpetrator was on the rooftop, while in reality he was on 4th floor rooftop terrace. The gunfire also caused panic outside, with crowds fleeing Charles Bridge. Police lost some time searching for a route outside, as the area was difficult to navigate. While the first three floors are accessible by the main central staircase, the position of the side staircase leading to the fourth floor was not immediately visible to the officers. At 15:12, the advancing police forces split into two groups, with the first continuing their search for the perpetrator and the second initiating first aid to the victims. Authorities reported seeing "piles of ammunition" inside the building's corridors, adding that Kozák had brought multiple weapons into the university. The city emergency services also deployed a large number of ambulance units to the scene.

Meanwhile, the perpetrator was engaged by a plainclothes detective from the street level, who fired three shots from a pistol from a distance of about 100 meters. Two other police officers armed with G36 carbines climbed to a top floor of a hotel on the opposite side of the street. The officer aimed his carbine at the perpetrator through a closed window at a moment when he threw the rifle off the roof and put his hands up. Shortly afterward, at 15:20, the perpetrator self-inflicted a fatal headshot wound from a shotgun. Police later searched Jan Palach Square and a balcony for explosives. Over 200 police officers took part in the engagement in the building and its vicinity.

A video by reporter Jiří Forman showed Kozák on the university's rooftop with a rifle. Forman, who had taken cover, shouted at Kozák to shoot in his direction in a successful attempt to draw his fire away from students evacuating the building.

Victims

Fourteen people were killed, and 25 were injured from the shooting. Kozák had earlier killed his father at their home. Thirteen of the victims in the university died in the building, while another died later in hospital, although Czech media reported that one of the fatalities fell off the building while trying to escape and several others were injured in similar circumstances.

Two of the victims were staff members, including Lenka Hlávková, head of the Institute of Musicology of Charles University, and , a lecturer at the university's Department of Germanic Studies. Among the remaining fatalities were students.

Ten of the injured were in serious condition, one of them being a daughter of MP and member of the parliamentary committee for education , who criticized police for wrongly triaging his daughter as a low-priority victim who subsequently nearly bled to death before reaching a hospital. Three foreign nationals were reported to be among the injured: one Dutch and two Emiratis.

Three people were wounded in the streets when the perpetrator opened fire from the rooftop. The perpetrator also hit a civilian car and police cars.

Perpetrator

A police officer with Interpol Prague identified the perpetrator as David Kozák, a 24-year-old masters in world history student from Hostouň, outside Prague, who had graduated with a bachelor's degree in History and European Studies from the Faculty of Arts. Police said that the perpetrator had no prior criminal record. The perpetrator had also passed an enhanced background check by the Civil Aviation Authority as part of a hiring process for his job at the Václav Havel International Airport.

Czech Police Chief said that the perpetrator had a gun permit and owned eight firearms. As a European Union member state, the Czech Republic adheres to the European Firearms Directive and legal accessibility of firearms is comparable to other EU countries. In 2021, a constitutional amendment to the country's Charter of Fundamental Rights and Freedoms gave citizens the right to defend themselves or others with a gun, while stating that that right cannot be limited by a separate law. To legally possess a firearm in the Czech Republic, a person must first obtain a firearms license, which requires a minimum age of 21 years, a medical examination, a weapon proficiency exam, and a clean criminal record. According to official police statistics, there were 313,000 gun license holders in the Czech Republic, who collectively owned about one million registered firearms in 2022. Gun attacks in the country are rare.

A Telegram account attributed to him contained writings in fluent Russian that praised two school shooters from Russia, namely Ilnaz Galyaviev and Alina Afanaskina, and described suicidal tendencies. This information was shared by Czech media but was not officially confirmed by police. A Russia correspondent at Czech Radio suggested the Telegram account was likely fake, as one post was edited after the shooter's death and the posts were written "in the language of a young native Russian speaker".

Interior Minister Vít Rakušan said that there were no other perpetrators, but urged everyone to cooperate with police, while adding investigators did not suspect an ideological or extremist link.

Aftermath

The evening after the attack, passersby lit candles and left flowers at the site of the attack. The Charles University Foundation and the community of Klánovice announced humanitarian online fundraisers to help those affected by the tragedy. The 2023–24 UEFA Women's Champions League football match between Slavia Prague and St. Pölten, set to be played at home in Prague on the day of the shooting, was postponed. Several other sports and cultural events were also called off, while Christmas markets across of the country were either closed or reduced operations on 23 December. Interior minister Vít Rakušan called on mayors across the country to cancel New Year's fireworks displays in light of the killings and urged citizens to mark the event peacefully out of respect for those traumatised by the shootings.

Following the shooting, police detained four people on suspicion of threatening to stage copycat attacks or expressing approval of the incident, while police presence in selected sites, including schools, were heightened until 1 January 2024.

Authorities responded to several false alarms about potential attacks following the incident, including two bomb-related hoaxes in Prague and in Vaclav Havel airport. In Slovakia, a 64-year-old man in Žilina was arrested by police after calling emergency services and saying that he intended to do "what happened in Prague" on the evening after the attack. He was subsequently charged with spreading general alarm.

At some point after the shootings, Kozák's house in Hostouň was broken into, and subsequently put under police guard.

On 4 January 2024, a march was held from the main building of Charles University to the Faculty of Arts building to commemorate the victims of the shootings, after which students formed a human chain around the building in a symbolic embrace before lighting a fire at Jan Palach square as bells in nearby churches tolled for 14 minutes.

On 26 January 2024, the Chamber of Deputies of the Czech Republic passed a new firearms act which had been in the making since 2017 and which was formally publicly introduced in September 2022. The new act, which will become effective in 2026, includes several changes, such as requiring businesses to report suspicious purchases of firearms and ammunition to police, requiring gun owners to undergo a medical examination every five years as opposed to 10 years under the current laws, giving doctors access to databases to find out if their patients are gun owners, and expanding reasons for preliminary seizure of firearms by police. The legislation passed unopposed in the lower house, and must be approved by the Senate and President Petr Pavel for it to become law.

Reactions

Domestic

During a vigil at Charles University on 22 December, its rector Milena Králíčková said, "The academic community is shaken, deeply shaken." Prime Minister Petr Fiala cancelled his scheduled events in Olomouc and travelled to Prague shortly after the shooting. President Petr Pavel expressed his "sincere condolences" to the family and friends of the victims via social media, while also cutting short a trip to France.

Fiala later announced a day of mourning for 23 December, with flags flying at half-mast and a minute of silence held at noon, along with the ringing of bells for the victims. A mass for the victims was also held that day at Saint Vitus Cathedral, which was attended by Pavel, Senate president Miloš Vystrčil, and Chamber of Deputies president Markéta Pekarová Adamová. The service was officiated by Jan Graubner, the Roman Catholic Archbishop of Prague, who expressed shock at the incident and expressed the "need to clearly condemn what happened" while also looking into the future. University rector Milena Králíčková also said during the event that "Nobody should be left alone in these tough moments." Religious services for the victims were also held in other parts of the country.

In a social media post, SPD MP Jiří Kobza blamed the "inclusive progressive school system" at the Faculty of Arts for creating the shooter. The post was later deleted. The called Kobza's post "absolutely shocking, crossing the boundaries of decency, morality, good manners, but also the boundaries of humanity." Charles University announced it would file a criminal complaint against Kobza. On 9 January 2024, Kobza apologized on social media, claiming he was under emotions at the time of his initial post. Charles University called his apology "unsatisfactory" and too late.

International

Many international leaders expressed condolences, including European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen, United States president Joe Biden, Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskyy, Canadian prime minister Justin Trudeau, Israeli president Isaac Herzog, Slovak president Zuzana Čaputová and prime minister Robert Fico, German chancellor Olaf Scholz, Hungarian prime minister Viktor Orbán, French president Emmanuel Macron, Finnish president Sauli Niinistö, Pope Francis, and Taiwanese president Tsai Ing-wen.

See also

* Uherský Brod shooting, a 2015 mass shooting that was the deadliest mass shooting in the Czech Republic prior to this attack
* Ostrava hospital attack, a 2019 Czech mass shooting

Notes

References

External links

Police bodycam compilation
released by the Police of the Czech Republic

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