Two men detained in Poland for praising Kraków square shooting and threatening attacks

The Kraków square shooting

On Saturday, 7 November, a 24-year-old attacker drove a car onto the Main Market Square (Rynek Główny) in Kraków and opened fire on passersby. Six people were killed. Reports give the number of injured as 15 or 16, with the higher figure including two police officers. One report says police found seven firearms in the attacker's flat, along with the bodies of three people with gunshot wounds, who were his parents and sister. The sequence of events reported so far is shown below, and the two detentions on 10 November came three days later.

Elbląg: threats at the City Hall

On Tuesday, 10 November, a 68-year-old man caused a disturbance in the secretariat of the Elbląg City Hall, using vulgar language and threatening staff, according to police. He praised the Kraków attacker and said he would carry out the same kind of attack in Elbląg, which left employees feeling a real threat to their safety. A police prevention patrol detained him at his home and took him to a police cell. Police said he will soon face charges over his conduct, and the reports do not specify which charges.

“In a time of current threats linked to potential acts of sabotage and diversion, there is and will be no tolerance for praising the killer's actions.”

Officers noted that every signal of a possible attack is handled as a priority in the wake of the Kraków killings. Police said each such case will meet a firm response, and that careless threats will carry real consequences for their author, even when the speaker had no intention of carrying them out.

Iława: a post written under the influence

On the same day, Iława police received a report about a post on the social media account of a 40-year-old man from the Iława commune. The post threatened attacks on other people while praising the Kraków attacker. Officers identified the account holder, located him and detained him. The man said he had written the post while drunk, could not explain why he did it, and deleted it after sobering up. A search of his flat found nothing suggesting he was preparing to carry out the threats, but the prosecutor ordered police supervision (policyjny dozór) against him.

Penalties and open questions

According to the penalties cited in the reports, public praise of a crime under the Polish penal code can bring a fine, restriction of liberty, or up to one year in prison. Making threats against others carries up to three years, and deliberately raising a false alarm that puts many people's lives in danger carries between six months and eight years. The reports describe the Elbląg man as about to be charged but give no formal charges. None of the reports say the 40-year-old from Iława has been charged, and police did not say whether his case will go to trial. The detentions came in a period when police warned of potential acts of diversion and sabotage, a concern that the police statement itself cited.