Kraków Main Square attack: police say no city officers were sent to Warsaw, 141 from prevention unit

The attack on the Main Market Square

On Saturday, 7 November, a 24-year-old Polish citizen drove a car onto the Main Market Square in Kraków and opened fire on people there. Six people were killed and 15 were injured, including two police officers. Police returned fire and wounded the attacker, who was then detained and later died in hospital. The same day, officers found the bodies of his father, mother and sister, all with gunshot wounds, in an apartment in Ostrowiec Świętokrzyski. The first emergency call came in around 15:00, city guards reached the square two minutes later and police intervened in the third minute. In total, 30 police crews, 24 State Fire Service units and 62 firefighter-rescuers were deployed. Ten of the injured were still in hospital at the time of reporting.

Police numbers under dispute

Telewizja Republika had a crew at the scene, and its editor-in-chief, Tomasz Sakiewicz, commented on air that he could not see any police officers. He suggested the force's reserves had been sent to Warsaw for a protest outside the Constitutional Tribunal.

“Probably all police reserves have been taken to Warsaw.”

Małopolska Police answered on X on Sunday, 15 November, saying that 141 officers from the Prevention Unit of the Police in Kraków were sent to Warsaw and that they were not officers of the Kraków City Police Command. The unit has an establishment of over 500 officers. The police said 128 prevention officers from the city command were on duty in Kraków that day, covering patrols, district officers, traffic police and detectives, and that not one city command officer had been delegated to Warsaw.

“Please do not mislead people about the security situation in Kraków.”

The police added that the exact number of officers on duty is confidential because of the nature of their work, and that operational officers from the city and regional commands should also be counted. A retired officer's letter, shared on social media by Piotr Bartosz, chairman of the Kraków structures of Ruch Narodowy, claimed that the Kraków prevention unit had been sent to Warsaw and that part of it guarded a demonstration at Plac Matejki.

Sent to Warsaw from Kraków Prevention Unit141

City command prevention officers on duty in Kraków128

City command officers sent to Warsaw0

Sent to Warsaw from Kraków Prevention Unit

141 officers

City command prevention officers on duty in Kraków

128 officers

City command officers sent to Warsaw

0 officers

Data from the article text

Motive and political reactions

Interior minister Marcin Kierwiński linked the attacker to the far right immediately after the tragedy.

“Everything indicates that he was fascinated by far-right ideologies.”

Prosecutors said that no such findings about the motives had been presented and that motives or inspirations cannot responsibly be discussed at this stage. In the weekly Sieci, columnist Robert Tekieli described nihilistic violent extremism (NVE), in which violence is pursued for its own sake, and online groups such as No Lives Matter, 764 and The Com. He asked whether such circles could have inspired the attacker, without establishing a link. Prime Minister Donald Tusk appealed right after the attack that the tragedy not be used in a political dispute. At the time of these reports, prosecutors had not described any motive.