Thousands Mourn Kraków Mass Shooting Victims in Silent March
Thousands of people joined in a silent Monday night march in Kraków to mourn and honor the victims of the recent mass shooting that left six dead and over a dozen injured.
The Polish news channel TVN24 detailed that “The March of Silence” saw its participants gather at Kraków’s Main Market Square, where on Saturday, a masked assailant opened fire from inside a moving vehicle. The suspect, later identified by local outlets as 24 year-old Michał Oksiński, was injured during a shootout with police forces and remained in critical condition.
Oksiński, died on Monday while in hospital.
Candles at the site of the mass shooting were lit on Monday night in honor of the victims. A bugler played “Sound of Silence” at around 08:30 p.m. (local time). Participants united in prayer for the deceased before the march concluded.
The peaceful march was led by longtime rivals, President Karol Nawrocki and Prime Minister Donald Tusk, who walked alongside Kraków’s Mayor Łukasz Gibała in what has been described as a rare show of national unity between the Polish President and the Prime Minister. The rivalry between the two politicians reached a boiling point earlier this month after Nawrocki accused Tusk of causing a constitutional crisis in the country in an intense spat over the nation’s highest court.
“For Poland, this is always a sign of hope: that while we may hold different views, we are still capable of cooperating, engaging in dialogue, and seeking out what unites us,” Deputy Prime Minister Wladyslaw Kosiniak-Kamysz reportedly told TVN24. “We are capable of showing solidarity during difficult times. Together, we can support those who need such support.”
Both Nawrocki and Tusk published footage of their silent march through their respective social media accounts.
According to Polish media, three of the six fatal victims were Polish women between the aged 47, 53, and 61, in addition to a 55 year-old Polish man, a 32 year-old Briton, and a 51 year old Austrian woman.
Additionally, the suspected perpetrator of the attack is also believed to have killed his two parents and sister at their residence in Ostrowiec Świętokrzyski. The sister, identified as Magdalena Oksińska, was a student at the Kraków Academy of Fine Arts.
One of her teachers reportedly described her as a “very talented, sensitive, and hard-working person” in remarks shared with TVN24.
The Polish government has faced criticism and accusations of lying in the immediate hours following the mass shooting after Interior Minister Marcin Kierwiński said that the suspect had been “fascinated with far-right” ideologies.
Kierwiński, a member of Prime Minister Tusk’s liberal government, later acknowledged his initial assertions were a baseless “initial hypothesis.”
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