Shooting Incidents in the West - Discussion Thread

[The Bald Eagle]

Prague shooting: At least 15 dead in Prague shooting, including gunman, emergency services say​

At least 15 people have been killed in a shooting in central Prague, according to Czech emergency services.

At least 24 others have been wounded, according to the Czech rescue service.

Police previously said the gunman - a 24-year-old student at the Faculty of Arts at Charles University in Prague - had been "eliminated".

His body was found in the university's philosophy building, according to officials.

Police said the gunman's father was also found dead earlier today.

Officers are still sweeping the area, including the building's balconies, for possible explosives.

The mass shooting is the deadliest in the Czech Republic in recent years - the last being in 2019, when seven people were killed by a gunman, who later took his own life, in the Ostrava hospital attack.

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."

Prime Minister Petr Fiala also cancelled his scheduled events on Thursday to travel to Prague. The incident took place in the area of Jan Palach Square, in the city's Old Town district.

Source : Sky News

 

[The Bald Eagle]

Prague shooting: At least 15 dead in Prague shooting, including gunman, emergency services say​

At least 15 people have been killed in a shooting in central Prague, according to Czech emergency services.

At least 24 others have been wounded, according to the Czech rescue service.

Police previously said the gunman - a 24-year-old student at the Faculty of Arts at Charles University in Prague - had been "eliminated".

His body was found in the university's philosophy building, according to officials.

Police said the gunman's father was also found dead earlier today.

Officers are still sweeping the area, including the building's balconies, for possible explosives.

The mass shooting is the deadliest in the Czech Republic in recent years - the last being in 2019, when seven people were killed by a gunman, who later took his own life, in the Ostrava hospital attack.

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."

Prime Minister Petr Fiala also cancelled his scheduled events on Thursday to travel to Prague. The incident took place in the area of Jan Palach Square, in the city's Old Town district.

Source : Sky News

An unfortunate incident. Need to take action against the culprits of it.

 

[BouncerGuy]

Prague shooting: Day of mourning declared after 14 killed - as suspect linked to separate murder

The Czech Republic will hold a day of mourning after 14 people were killed and 25 injured in a mass shooting - as police investigate the suspect's links to another murder.

Police say the gunman opened fire on Thursday in the philosophy department at Charles University in Prague - where he was a student - in the worst shooting the country has ever seen.

Based on a search of his home, the gunman - named in Czech media as 24-year-old "David K" - is also suspected in the killing of another man and his two-month-old daughter last Friday.

Prague's police chief, Martin Vondrasek, added the force believes the suspect killed his father earlier on Thursday in his hometown of Hostoun and that he had also been planning to kill himself.

President Petr Pavel expressed his "great sadness" in a statement, along with "helpless anger at the unnecessary loss of so many young lives".

"I would like to express my sincere condolences to all relatives of the victims, to all who were at this tragic incident," he added.

The Czech government declared Saturday will be a national day of mourning to honour the victims, Prime Minister Petr Fiala said.

Previously, the nation's worst mass shooting was in 2015, when a gunman opened fire in the town of Uhersky Brod, killing eight before ending his own life.

Police had "unconfirmed information from an account on a social network that he was supposedly inspired by one terrorist attack in Russia in the autumn of this year", Mr Vondrasek said.

"It was a pre-mediated horrific act that started in the Kladno region and unfortunately ended here," he said, adding the gunman was a legal holder of several firearms.

Police said he was a high-achieving student with no prior criminal record and that he acted alone.

Officers asked not to reveal the man's identity, but his name reported by some Czech media matched a police search report.

Interior Minister Vit Rakusan said the shooting had no connection to international terrorism.

'Don't go anywhere'

The incident took place in the area of Jan Palach Square, in the city's Old Town district, which is a few minutes' walk from the Old Town Square, a major tourist attraction where thousands have visited a Christmas market.

Staff at the faculty of arts of Charles University were sent an emergency email during the shooting in which staff were urged to "stay put", according to Reuters.

"Don't go anywhere, if you're in the offices, lock them and place furniture in front of the door, turn off the lights," the email said.

Klara, a student at the university, told local media that she was among those who police evacuated from the building.

"It was terribly scary," she told iDnes.cz.

"There were a lot of policemen everywhere, who were shouting at us with submachine guns, telling us to run outside."

Brits caught up

Meanwhile, a British couple who were visiting Prague as part of their honeymoon, said they were ordered to stay down by police during the shooting.

Tom Leese, 34, a video producer and his wife Rachael, 31, an account director, from Surrey, said they were having a drink in the Slivovitz Museum, close to where the shooting took place, when a policeman burst in.

"He started shouting loudly in what I assume was Czech," Mr Leese said.

"I asked for it in English, and he said there was an active shooter and to stay inside and stay down.

"The staff were very calm, turned all the lights off very quickly and urged us to stay calm."
​

Prague shooting: Day of mourning declared after 14 killed - as suspect linked to separate murder

The suspect behind the killing of 14 people in a university in Prague - known only as David K - may have also been involved in the killing of a man and his two-month-old baby last week. Police say the gunman acted alone and had no criminal record.

news.sky.com

 

[The Bald Eagle]

Slovakia arrest over threat to copy Prague attack

Police in Slovakia say they have arrested a man who had threatened to carry out a massacre similar to Thursday's mass shooting in Prague.

They say a 64-year-old was held in the northern city of Zilina after he called emergency services claiming he intended to do "what happened in Prague".

He now faces prosecution for spreading general alarm, which carries a maximum penalty of two years in prison.

On Thursday a student opened fire at a Prague university, killing 14 people

Czech police have also made a number of arrests since the shooting.

One man had called emergency services the same evening to say he wanted to acquire a gun to carry out a similar massacre.

Police released video showing officers armed with automatic weapons breaking down his apartment door shortly afterwards and arresting him.

Another man was arrested after threatening to kill the surviving members of the gunman's family. Police said they had recovered a legally-held weapon at his home in the Vysocina region southeast of Prague.

On Friday night officers were called to a village in the western Plzen region after a man threatened to shoot his neighbours. He was arrested, but found to be drunk and unarmed.

Czech Republic falls silent to mourn shooting victims
How killer left a trail of victims across Prague
Czech police seek motive behind country's worst mass shooting
There have been several more security incidents, amid a general sense of public unease since the killings.

An armed response unit was sent to Prague's busy IP Pavlova intersection on Friday evening after reports of a man holding a grenade. Pyrotechnic experts called to the scene said the weapon was an imitation.

Two men - described by the media as foreigners - were arrested. Tram and road traffic was temporarily halted, and metro trains did not stop at the station until police gave the all-clear.

On Saturday evening, meanwhile, Prague Airport's Terminal 2 was briefly evacuated after an "English-speaking man" called police to say there were five bombs planted at the airport. Flights were not affected and the terminal was reopened after being swept for explosives.

Most Czechs celebrate Christmas on 24 December. This year's festivities are taking place immediately after a day of national mourning for Thursday's victims. President Petr Pavel urged people to think of those who had lost loved ones.

"Let us respect their pain and not leave them to suffer it alone," he said in a statement.

"Our solidarity, help, but also tact and consideration will give them the strength to gradually cope with this situation."

Source : BBC

 

[gani999]

Not many people know that some Eastern and Central European countries have a gun culture that would make America proud. There was also a shooting like this in Serbia a few months ago.
RIP to the deceased. I hope the powers that be crack down on the gun culture before Czech, Serbia and other countries become like America.

 

[The Bald Eagle]

Not many people know that some Eastern and Central European countries have a gun culture that would make America proud. There was also a shooting like this in Serbia a few months ago.
RIP to the deceased. I hope the powers that be crack down on the gun culture before Czech, Serbia and other countries become like America.

But I still believe no country can surpass American gun culture.

 

[The Bald Eagle]

Gunman, reportedly age 89, opens fire at 2 locations in Greek capital, wounding several people​

ATHENS, Greece (AP) — Police in Greece’s capital were searching for a gunman, reportedly aged 89, who opened fire Tuesday in a social security office and a courthouse in central Athens, wounding at least four people.

Armed with a shotgun, the gunman initially opened fire at the social security office, wounding an employee, police said. Police officers who arrived at the scene treated the man, but the gunman fled the scene.

Local media aired security camera footage that it said was from a local store near the social security office, which showed a man walking calmly across the street carrying what appears to be a short-barreled shotgun in his right hand.

The same man was suspected of later opening fire on the ground floor of a court building in another part of central Athens, with several people wounded there, police said, adding that authorities had found the shotgun.

Television footage showed ambulance crews transporting at least three people from the courthouse to waiting ambulances.

The head of the Athens Judicial Employees Union, Stratis Dounias, said that initial information indicated that the man had shot at the floor inside one of the offices in the court building. At least three female court employees were slightly wounded by ricocheting shotgun pellets, while media reports said that a fourth female employee was transported to a hospital without physical injuries.

The motive for the shooting was unclear. State broadcaster ERT said that the gunman had reportedly left envelopes with documents after the shooting at the courthouse, saying those were the reasons for his actions.

Alexandros Varveris, head of the National Social Security Fund known by its Greek acronym EFKA, said the gunman had gone to the fourth floor of the social security fund’s offices in the Kerameikos area of central Athens and opened fire after calling out to an employee to duck. His shot hit another employee, who was wounded in the leg, Varveris said, adding that the gunman had been wearing a trenchcoat under which he had hidden the shotgun.

“He went in, went up to the fourth floor, raised his shotgun, told an employee to duck and hit another one,” Varveris told ERT radio. He said the gunman didn’t appear to specifically target the employee he hit.

The wounded employee was transported to a hospital, after police applied a tourniquet to his leg at the scene.

Gun violence is relatively rare in Greece, where firearm ownership is allowed but tightly regulated

Source: AP News