Attack in Poland: candles and prayers for the victims

The famous trumpet signal “Hejnal” from the tower of St. Mary's Church in Krakow can be heard again. The tradition goes back to the 14th century. To this day, the signal breaks off in the middle of the melody, reminding us at every hour of the tower brass in the Middle Ages who was fatally hit by a Tatar arrow and was unable to finish the melody.

On Saturday afternoon after the terrorist attack with 6 deaths and 15 injuries on the famous Krakow main market, the Hejnal fell silent. This had not happened since the war began on September 1, 1939. Since Sunday morning at 9 a.m. the tower blower has appeared again in each of the four windows and blows the Hejnal. But it sounds different than before: not defiantly happy, but like a lament for the dead.

On Monday, the second day of national mourning, Krakow's main market appears less busy than usual. Many passers-by place flowers at places where people were fatally hit on Saturday. Also next to the entrance to the mighty St. Mary's Church. Others light grave candles that glow red and yellow. Some pray.

Most of the traces of the terrorist attack have already been removed, the pools of blood have been wiped up and the police barriers have been removed. But the bullet hole in the window of a popular street café can still be seen - as can many photos taken by witnesses of the terrorist attack and placed at the small vigils for the dead. The Krakow Market Square with the famous Cloth Hall in the middle currently looks like a cemetery after a big funeral.

The suspected assassin Michal O. from Ostrowiec Świętokrzyski, 180 kilometers north of Krakow, is now dead. The 24-year-old was stopped and shot by two police officers on his death journey through Krakow's old town. He died in hospital around 4 a.m. Monday morning, police announced.

It remains to be seen whether Poles will ever find out how and why the young man became radicalized in the last few weeks. Interior Minister Marcin Kierwiński spoke on Saturday evening of a “fascination for right-wing radical ideologies,” but was this also the motive for the crime? After all, the young Pole had first murdered his parents and younger sister at home and then – hours later in Krakow – fired indiscriminately into the crowd with a semi-automatic weapon.

The police and secret services assume that O. planned and prepared the crime for weeks or even months. This is indicated by the large amount of ammunition in the car, several weapons that the perpetrator had with him and four cell phones. Some police officers in the Kraków police station expressed doubts to the conservative daily Rzeczpospolita that the perpetrator was close to a right-wing or left-wing ideology and that he had “simply eliminated people”.

The “Organized Crime and Corruption” department of the public prosecutor’s office in Krakow had already started investigating the nine murders in Krakow and Ostrowiec Świętokrzyski on Sunday. Since the same alleged perpetrator is responsible for the six deaths in Krakow and the three family members in Ostrowiec Świętokrzyski, the case is not viewed as shared, but as one.

Prosecutor General Waldemar Żurek confirmed the classification of the six-fold murder in Krakow as a “terrorist act”. The death of the suspected assassin has no influence on the investigation, said Żurek. However, in parallel to the murder investigations, investigations are also being carried out against the spreading of false reports, deliberate misleading and slander.

Both newspaper, radio and television editors who deliberately spread lies should be prosecuted, as well as politicians, publicists and influencers on the Internet who speculated on high click numbers through sensational postings. However, Krakow prosecutor Eryk Stasielak dampened expectations of quick results: “We are only at the very beginning of the investigation,” he said, according to Gazeta Wyborcza.