David Kozak Suspected Of Murdering A Baby Prior To Prague Shooting

David Kozak, the gunman who opened fire at a university in Prague on Thursday, is now suspected of killing a man and his four-month-old daughter one week prior.

Police chief Martin Vondrasek told the public that Kozak was the prime suspect in the "apparent" random murder of a 32-year-old man and his baby daughter, which occurred one week before the shooting at the university.

“We are working very seriously with the version, which is very real at the moment, that [Thursday's] attacker is also responsible for the two victims killed last Friday at Klanovice forest,” Vondrasek said

In addition to the father and four-month-old daughter, Kozak is also believed to have killed his own father before he opened fire at the university Thursday.

Police have identified the Prague mass shooter as David Kozak, a 24-year-old student at the university. Dozens more were injured and are currently being treated in local hospitals.

According to eyewitnesses, a man shot multiple people in the philosophy department building on Thursday, killing at least 14 people. 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, where seven people were killed by a gunman, who later took his own life in an Ostrava hospital.

In addition to the 14 people Kozak killed in the mass shooting, the 24-year-old also died by suicide, authorities confirmed. “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.

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

According to police, David Kozak legally owned several guns and was heavily armed during the incident. One of the guns has been confirmed to be an American AR-15.

In the weeks leading up to the mass shooting, David Kozak used Telegram — a social media platform similar to Facebook Messenger, as a personal “diary” of his life, even claiming he "wants to do [a] school shooting and possibly suicide."

"I always wanted to kill. I thought I would become a maniac in the future," one of the posts from Kozak read.

Although these posts are concerning, police say “There’s no indication that it has anything to do with international terrorism."

"It’s a horrible crime, something the Czech Republic has never experienced," Czech Interior Minister Vit Rakusan said.

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.”

A motive for the Prague mass shooting is still under investigation.