Prague Mass Shooter David Kozak Legally Owned Guns

David Kozak, the 24-year-old student who opened fire at a university in Prague Thursday, legally owned the guns he used in the mass shooting.

In addition to the 14 people killed in the shooting, the 24-year-old also died by suicide, authorities confirmed. He was described as an excellent student with no criminal record.

Dozens more were injured and are currently being treated in local hospitals.

According to police, David Kozak legally owned several guns and was heavily armed during the incident, which authorities said was a "well-thought-out" act.

When asked if police were looking into Kozak before the shooting, investigators stated, “No, I saw the procedure that we followed, and I’m convinced we haven’t made any mistakes. We were analyzing the data. The data indicated that he was one of the suspects, so I believe we acted in the correct way.”

The 24-year-old student shot himself once he realized police arrived at the scene and were closing in on him.

“He was left with a shotgun which does not have long range, and when we were nearing the balcony he decided to commit suicide,” Petr Matejcek, director of the Prague regional police, stated.

Kozak is also believed to have killed his own father before he opened fire at the university Thursday.

Czech authorities are looking into a potential connection between a series of Russian-language messages posted on Telegram, 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.

Other messages posted to Telegram posed as a "diary" of his life "before the shooting." "I want to do [a] school shooting and possibly suicide," one message read. "I always wanted to kill. I thought I would become a maniac in the future."

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.

“Footage shows students hiding on a ledge during an ongoing mass shooting in University in Prague,” another user shared 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.