Prague Searches for Motive in Its Worst Mass Capturing Since World Struggle II Period

Investigators on Friday have been working to ascertain a motive for a lethal gun rampage within the middle of Prague a day earlier amid swirling questions and nationwide mourning over the Czech Republic’s worst mass taking pictures for the reason that fast aftermath of World Struggle II.

The gunfire that erupted on Thursday at Charles University turned the historic middle of one in every of Europe’s most serene and delightful cities right into a scene of carnage, its festive Christmas temper pierced by screams and the din of sirens. Vacationers ran for security whereas some college students barricaded themselves inside school rooms. Others climbed out of home windows, hiding on the ledge of a constructing.

The gunman killed 14 folks and wounded 25 others earlier than fatally taking pictures himself when the police surrounded him on the rooftop of the constructing, the authorities stated at a information convention on Friday.

The Czech Republic canceled soccer and hockey matches — normally immovable options of the pre-Christmas calendar — and declared Saturday a day of nationwide mourning. President Petr Pavel, who has appealed for nationwide unity, expressed gratitude for a worldwide outpouring of help.

“My thoughts are still with families of the victims, injured and those who had to fight for their lives,” Mr. Pavel wrote on social media, adding: “No one can imagine the fear and mental strain they went through yesterday.”

No international nationals have been killed within the assault, however one individual from the Netherlands and two folks from the United Arab Emirates have been among the many wounded, in keeping with the Czech Overseas Ministry.

The college’s School of Arts, the place the taking pictures occurred, remained sealed off Friday morning. Mourners gathered round candles and flowers outdoors the constructing, and an in a single day thunderstorm adopted by morning rain added to the capital’s somber temper.

Amid the grief have been various unanswered questions: What drove the gunman to open fireplace on the college? May extra lives have been saved? And did the Czech Republic’s permissive perspective towards gun possession play a job?

The authorities on Friday didn’t recommend a motive, having earlier dominated out any connection to worldwide or home terrorism, however instructed a information convention that the gunman appeared to have acted alone.

Additionally they pushed again on any criticism of the police response to the taking pictures — for hours, the authorities have been one step behind the assailant — and supplied extra particulars on the occasions that led as much as it.

The police obtained info early on Thursday afternoon {that a} man who could be armed had threatened to kill himself and was on his strategy to Prague, the authorities instructed the information convention. A nationwide seek for the person was initiated and by 1:15 p.m. had narrowed to give attention to Charles College, they stated.

The primary photographs rang out simply earlier than 3 p.m., and the police have been on the scene in 4 minutes, in keeping with the authorities. The police started to seek for the gunman and inside half-hour had him surrounded on the roof, the authorities stated, including that tons of of officers have been concerned with the operation.

“People may criticize the police and say it should have happened sooner. We need to understand that the perpetrator was hiding,” stated Petr Matejcek, the director of the Prague regional police division. “There are a number of buildings around, there were people who were watching, and it would have been very unfortunate if the use of firearms by police caused further injuries.”

The authorities recognized the gunman solely as David Ok. and stated that they imagine he fatally shot his father in a city outdoors Prague on Thursday earlier than heading to the college. He’s additionally a possible suspect within the double homicide of a child and its father final week in Klanovice Forest, west of Prague, in keeping with the police.

The police additionally stated that they have been investigating whether or not the gunman was linked to a collection of expletive-laden messages vowing mass homicide that have been posted in Russian on the Telegram messaging platform beneath the title David Kozak.

“I hate the world and want to leave as much pain as possible,” learn a message posted three days earlier than Thursday’s bloodbath. “I want to do a school shooting and possibly suicide.”

The messages, seen by The New York Occasions, have been all written in Russian, apparently by a local speaker effectively versed in vulgar slang. If the gunman and the Telegram author have been the identical individual, it was not clear how a Czech citizen raised in a small village in Central Bohemia would have acquired such mastery of the language.

Amid a flurry of studies on social media that the gunman’s household was of Russian origin, the inside minister, Vit Rakusan, stated on Friday that David Ok. was Czech and had grown up in a Czech household.

The unfold of misinformation has lengthy been a major problem within the Czech Republic, a phenomenon that some consultants have linked to on-line mischief-making by Russia, although others have blamed Moscow’s adversaries. Relations between Prague and Moscow have soured sharply since Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, and the election in January of Mr. Pavel, a former common who, in contrast to his Kremlin-friendly predecessor, Milos Zeman, is a sturdy supporter of Ukraine and NATO.

On Friday, the commander of the Czech navy’s Cyber and Info Forces Group, Ivo Zelinka, warned the general public towards sharing unverified details about the gunman on-line.

The authorities additionally have been working to ascertain what number of weapons the gunman had used within the assault. On Friday, they stated that he had registered licenses for eight weapons.

The Czech Republic, in contrast to many European international locations, has a comparatively tolerant method to gun possession. Licensing guidelines are strict, however the proper to guard oneself and others utilizing arms has been assured since 1991 by the nation’s Constitution of Basic Rights and Freedoms.

Nervous that the European Union may in some unspecified time in the future stress the Czech Republic to fall extra in keeping with different international locations, hunters and different gun lovers have efficiently lobbied Parliament to enshrine that proper within the Structure — the closest European equal to the Second Modification in the US.

Though there have been a couple of calls on social media for the tightening of gun legal guidelines in response to Thursday’s rampage, they have been shortly rejected as an try to introduce politics into the nation’s grief and denounced as disrespectful to the lifeless.

That response stood in sharp distinction to the outcry in Serbia, the place back-to-back mass shootings in May killed 17 folks and wounded greater than 20. Serbia additionally has stringent gun possession guidelines, however within the aftermath of the massacres, it has been convulsed by public debate about whether or not gun possession needs to be restricted additional.

However within the Czech Republic on Friday, the main target was on grief — which broke via the widespread indifference to faith in a rustic that ranks as one of the world’s most atheist nations.

As the primary particulars started to emerge concerning the lives misplaced — the police stated that Lenka Hlavkova, the top of the college’s music research division, was amongst these killed — college students, college members and members of the general public have been invited to a memorial service on Friday night at Holy Savior Church to be presided over by a Roman Catholic priest affiliated with the School of Arts.