Krakow hospital: doctor treated shooting suspect as victim

The 24-year-old suspected of killing six people in Kraków's Main Market Square has died in hospital, Polish police say, after off-duty surgeons treated him and wounded officers at the scene. Professor Michal Pędziwiatr told the BBC he treats all those he helps like victims.

Key Takeaways

• Polish police say the 24-year-old Kraków shooting suspect has died in hospital after being wounded in a police shootout.
• Professor Michal Pędziwiatr, one of two surgeons near the square, told the BBC he treats everyone he helps like victims—including the attacker.
• Six people were killed on the Main Market Square; authorities also reported three deaths at the suspect's family home.
• Poland's justice minister says the terrorism investigation will continue to determine whether the attacker acted alone.
• Two days of national mourning were declared after the rare mass shooting in Poland's second-largest city.

The confirmed hospital death closes one chapter of a weekend attack that shocked Poland and drew international attention. Yet prosecutors say they are not finished asking who else, if anyone, may have been involved.

According to The Guardian's Europe live coverage, authorities reported that the Polish attacker—who had been injured while exchanging fire with police—died in hospital. Polish prosecutors had already opened a terrorism investigation after Saturday's shooting on Kraków's popular Main Market Square.

What did the doctor who treated the Krakow shooting suspect say?

Professor Michal Pędziwiatr was one of two surgeons who treated people on the street in the immediate aftermath of the attack. In a BBC interview, he framed his role in starkly medical terms: "I treat all these people like they are victims."

The BBC reported that the two doctors were eating near the city's Main Market Square on Saturday when a gunman began firing at random. Six people were killed and about 15 were injured in that account of the scene.

"We rushed into the area and started our rescue" before emergency services arrived, Pędziwiatr said. The pair raced to treat both the attacker and two officers shot while subduing the perpetrator—an urgent field response that later fed into hospital care for those who survived the square.

His message was not about motive or ideology. It was about triage: in those first minutes, the people bleeding in front of him were patients first.

Why does the suspect's hospital death matter now?

Police confirmation that the gunman has died in hospital answers the most urgent medical question surrounding the attacker. It also changes the legal picture: there will be no courtroom confrontation with the 24-year-old himself.

That does not end the case. Poland's justice minister, Waldemar Zurek, said that despite the attacker's death, the investigation will continue and will aim to establish whether he acted alone. Officials had opened a terrorism probe after the square attack.

The Guardian reported that the suspect was from Ostrowiec Swietokrzyski in southeastern Poland. On the first of two days of national mourning, police confirmed that three people found dead at the gunman's home after the attack were his father, 53, mother, 52, and sister, 21.

Those home findings, together with the hospital outcome, are central to how investigators map the full sequence of violence before and after the square shooting.

How many people were killed and injured in the Krakow attack?

Saturday's shooting on the Main Market Square killed six people, including a Briton, according to The Guardian. That outlet put the number of people injured at 17; the BBC's earlier street-scene report cited 15 injured. Five of the injured were foreign nationals from Britain, Austria, Germany, Portugal and Russia.

Two police officers were among the wounded, and one of them was described as being in a serious condition. Sky News reported that the gunman suspected of killing six people in Kraków had died, citing police—matching the hospital update carried across European coverage.

Main Market Square reopened on Sunday evening after a security cordon was lifted, giving residents and visitors a first chance to return to a space that had been sealed for investigation and mourning.

What are officials saying about motive and next steps?

Interior minister Marcin Kierwiński said the suspect was fascinated with far-right ideologies and held "very radical" and "ultra-nationalistic" views. Officials later appeared to cool that line as nationalist opposition politicians questioned the basis for the comments.

"Until the matter is fully clarified and the authorities are in possession of complete information, it is best to refrain from making comments, even if there are some initial indications," government spokesperson Adam Szlapka told TVN24, as reported by The Guardian.

For readers following wider BlasterPost coverage, including money and lifestyle explainers on our Wealth Hacks & Passive Income hub, this story sits in the same newsroom lane as a breaking public-safety update: stick to verified hospital, police, and ministerial statements.

The practical next steps are investigative, not medical. With the suspect dead in hospital, detectives and prosecutors will keep pressing whether he planned and carried out the Kraków attack alone, and how the deaths at his family home connect to Saturday's violence on the square.

National mourning has marked the country's response. A woman was photographed lighting a candle to commemorate the victims after the deadly shooting in Kraków, as Poland absorbs a rare mass shooting in one of its best-known public spaces.

What remains clearest from the hospital ward to the justice ministry is this: emergency medicine treated the wounded without sorting "victim" from "suspect" in the moment, while the criminal inquiry now focuses on whether anyone else shares responsibility for the attack.