The gunman behind the Czech Republic’s worst-ever mass shooting has been identified.David Kozak, 24, opened fire at Charles University in Prague on Thursday afternoon, killing at least 14 people and injuring more than 20.
The gunman, a history student at the university, started the shooting on the fourth floor of the building with legally owned weapons. Crowds of people fled for their lives as panic took over the country’s capital.
Kozak is believed to have killed his own father before carrying out the university massacre. He’s also suspected of killing a man and his four -month-old daughter in Prague a week ago, the city’s police chief Martin Vondrasek has said.
Czech authorities are also probing the potential connection between Kozak and a series of Russian-language messages posted on Telegram.
One of the messages indicated that the attack may have been influenced by two previous mass shootings in Russia—one this month at a school in Bryansk near the Ukraine border, and the other in 2021 in Kazan.
The gunman who killed 14 people after opening fire at Charles University in Prague has been named as David Kozak.The 24-year-old opened fire from the fourth floor of the philosophy department building of Charles University, where the gunman was a student, Prague Police Chief Martin Vondrasek said.
Kozak is also believed by police to have killed his father before the attack on Thursday. He’s also suspected in the killing of another man and his two-month-old daughter on December 15 in Prague.He was described as an excellent student with no criminal record.
Gunman David Kozak was carrying numerous weapons when he carried out his shootings, police have revealed.They said the 24-year-old student of the arts faculty in all likelihood shot himself after armed officers cornered him on a balcony and he dropped his long-barrel gun with sights.
“He was left with a shotgun which does not have long range, and when we were nearing the balcony he decided to commit suicide,” said Petr Matejcek, director of the Prague regional police.The first victim of the mass shooting yesterday has been named as Lenka Hlávková.
The Institute ofMusic Science at Charles University’s philosophy department posted a message of “deep regret” over her death on its Facebook page.
It read: “On the basis of verified information from the family and with their permission, we are announcing that our colleague and director of the Institute of Musicology of the Faculty of Music of the Faculty of Music, Lenka Hlávková did not survive yesterday’s attack.
“We express our deepest condolences to all the bereaved, first and foremost to the family. This is extremely cruel news for all of us. Let’s stay in support of each other.”The press conference has now been opened up for journalists’ questions. One journalist asks the lead investigator in the forest murders if, as the shooter was a suspect, was he being followed.
The investigator responds: “No, I saw the procedure that we followed and I’m convinced we haven’t made any mistakes. We were analysing the data. The data indicated that he was one of the suspects so I believe we acted in the correct way.”
