Police Identify Prague University Gunman Suspected Of Killing 14 People

Police have identified the Prague University gunman as 24-year-old David Kozak, who was a student at the university.

Kozak is suspected of killing 15 people when he opened fire in the philosophy department building of Charles University on Thursday. The 24-year-old also died, but it is unclear at this time if he shot himself, or if he ended up in the crossfire from police.

In total, 15 people were killed in the Prague University mass shooting, with dozens more injured.

Warning: The footage in this article is graphic. Viewer discretion is advised. 

According to eyewitnesses, the shooter, who has been identified as 24-year-old David Kozak, shot multiple people in the philosophy department building on Thursday.

Police have confirmed this to be one of the Czech Republic’s worst mass shootings of its kind. The last mass shooting was in 2019 when seven people were killed by a gunman, who later took his own life in an Ostrava hospital.

Kozak is also believed to have killed his father before the attack on Thursday, police officials stated. He was described as an excellent student with no criminal record.

Czech authorities are looking into a potential connection between a series of Russian-language messages posted on Telegram and Kozak, per Independent. One of those messages "indicated that inspiration for the attack may have been drawn from two previous mass shootings in Russia—one occurring this month at a school in Bryansk near the Ukraine border, and the second in 2021 in Kazan," per the outlet.

Disturbing videos of the incident have been shared on social media, including one video showing students hiding multiple stories above the ground on a ledge of the school.

Katerina Vodvarkova, a foreign news reporter at TV Nova, was near the university when the mass shooting occurred. “Personally, I never experienced anything like this in Prague. I watched students being evacuated and I had tears in my eyes that they had to witness this,” she told BBC, adding, “This is the busiest season for Prague, where we have our most famous Christmas market. It breaks my heart that visitors have to witness this.”

One student shared a photo from inside the classroom, as they locked and boarded up the door for safety. “Locked the door before the shooter tried to open it,” the student wrote on X, the social media platform formerly known as Twitter.

Prague Mayor Bohuslav Svoboda told Czech television, “We always thought that this was a thing that did not concern us. Now it turns out that, unfortunately, our world is also changing and the problem of the individual shooter is emerging here as well.”

A motive is still under investigation. The Blast will continue to report on any updates surrounding the unfortunate events that occurred in Prague on Thursday, December 21.