On 21 December 2023, a mass shooting occurred at Charles University's Faculty of Arts main building in central Prague, Czech Republic. A lone gunman, 24-year-old postgraduate student David Kozák, killed 13 people and injured 25 others before committing suicide after exchanging gunfire with police; an additional victim died indirectly from falling to her death while trying to escape the perpetrator.
At the time of the shooting, Kozák was one in a pool of about 4,000 suspects in a double murder that took place six days earlier, 25 kilometres (16 mi) away, when a man and his infant daughter were murdered in the Klánovice Forest. Evidence from the previous shootings linked the two incidents. Kozák's father was also found dead at his home in Hostouň, having been murdered hours before the Charles University shooting.
The Charles University shooting was the deadliest mass murder in the Czech Republic since its independence in 1993, surpassing the 2020 Bohumín arson attack.
Events
Klánovice Forest murders and initial investigation
On 15 December 2023, a 32-year-old father and his two-month-old daughter in a stroller were shot dead in the Klánovice Forest on the eastern outskirts of Prague, approximately 25 kilometres (16 mi) away from Charles University. Later investigation revealed that the perpetrator, David Kozák, had only visited the Klánovice Forest once before committing the murders. On the day of the Charles University shooting, he had written a suicide note on his computer detailing the Klánovice murders; he had also hidden the murder weapon in the family garden, outside of the house that was rigged with IED. According to the letter, Kozák used public transport on the day of the murders and switched off his phone while changing transport on the other side of Prague. He carried a brown beige backpack and was armed with two handguns—a Glock 45 and a Beretta 71.
Upon entering the forest, Kozák initially wanted to shoot a woman with two children whom he saw at a playground along the main forest path, but then he noticed a man with a stroller heading towards a side path and decided that he was an easier target. Kozák followed him closely for a while before shooting the man multiple times using the Glock 45 pistol, which was equipped with a silencer. He then fired two rounds into the stroller, killing the man's infant daughter, before fleeing the scene.
Kozák fled on foot towards Úvaly, took a bus to Klánovice railway station, and left the area by train sometime between 16:00 and 16:45 CET. At some point during his escape, he passed by a couple with a stroller and considered shooting them as well but decided not to after hearing sirens in the distance.
The police conducted a detailed search of the entire forest with hundreds of officers, while a special task force was set up in order to find the perpetrator. As police had no direct leads, the scope of the investigation was first directed at owners of registered firearms matching the ballistic report from the crime scene, which initially limited the search to about 30,000 people. This was then further limited to 4,000 people, of which about 40 people lived in the vicinity of the Klánovice Forest. On 20 December, police said that they had no leads in the case but were continuing to search for the perpetrator.
Once a personal or work-related motive was exhausted, the investigation focused on the possibility of a random murder. The firearms website zbrojnice.com noted a similarity of the case with the 2005 "Forest Killer" murders, in which a former police officer killed three random victims in forests in preparation for a planned mass murder in the Prague Metro, which was prevented by his early arrest; the article ended with an appeal to readers to remain vigilant and carry their concealed firearms.
The chief detective of Prague's 1st General Crime Unit said that because Kozák lived in the Central Bohemian Region, which has a separate police directorate from Prague, they were a few days short of being able to prevent the Charles University attack.
Hostouň patricide and police manhunt
At an unknown time on 21 December 2023, six days after the Klánovice Forest murders, Kozák murdered his father, 55-year-old Stanislav Kozák, by shooting him three times in the head at their home in Hostouň, about 9 kilometres (5.6 mi) west of Prague. Stanislav was shot from behind with a semi-automatic variant of the Škorpion machine pistol while sitting at a table, before his body was moved and his neck was laid on a block of wood. An axe was found lying next to him, which indicated that Kozák had probably intended to cut his father's head off but did not do so for unknown reasons.
At 12:19 CET, the Central Bohemian Police received a call from Kozák's mother. One minute later, a friend of Kozák's, only identified as K.C., called the medical emergency line, saying Kozák was planning to take his own life. She also said that "[Kozák] could be dangerous", that he told her "he will do something she will hear about", and that he was on his way to Prague from his hometown of Hostouň. Police officers went to the Kozák residence at 12:33 and found his father's body, as well as improvised explosive devices that were decommissioned by specialists later that day. The police discovered that Kozák was a student of Charles University's Faculty of Arts in Prague. A search warrant was issued, indicating that Kozák was armed and dangerous.
At 13:10, the Central Bohemian Police, whose jurisdiction the village of Hostouň falls under, directly alerted the Prague Police. The Prague police dispatcher issued an all-points bulletin (APB), which said that Kozák was being sought due to suicide threats, that he may be dangerous, and that he also may be connected to a violent crime. A security operation was commenced at Václav Havel Airport near Hostouň, where Kozák worked alongside his father, a member of the airport security department. Prague Police also checked the Central Registry of Firearms, noting that Kozák owns multiple firearms, and that one of them was of the same type of focus in the Klánovice Forest murders investigation. The APB was expanded with information that Kozák should be considered extremely dangerous.
At 13:23, Kozák entered the Faculty of Arts main building on Jan Palach Square through the busy main entrance without arousing any suspicion. He was carrying a heavy suitcase containing firearms, a large amount of ammunition, cleavers, chains, and bicycle locks. Kozák proceeded to the fourth-floor bathrooms, where he apparently remained until the start of the attack. Before the shooting, he placed his ID, a floor plan of the fourth floor with handwritten notes about the classrooms' capacities, an unopened alcohol bottle, and a Rivotril pack under the bathroom window.
At 13:30, two police units, altogether six officers, entered the main building, where they talked to the reception personnel and two vice deans whom they met in the corridors. The officers searched the building's ground and first floors, then visited the Student Affairs Office and the Department of History. There, they learned that Kozák was supposed to attend a lecture starting at 14:00 in a different building on Celetná Street, a twelve-minute walk from the main building.
At 13:57, multiple police units were sent to evacuate the Celetná building, including the six police officers who searched the main building. They left without taking any further action and proceeded to the Celetná building, where they would stand guard until the start of the attack. At 14:04, the following information was relayed by the dispatcher through the police radio transmitter:
Increased caution for all patrols in the case of this Kozák. He's a really dangerous, very dangerous offender, suspect, and there's a lot of concern that he could use a weapon anytime, anywhere.
The evacuation of Celetná building was finished at 14:22; Kozák was not found in the building or in its vicinity. Multiple students who were evacuated from the Celetná building subsequently walked to the main building at Jan Palach Square. At 14:38, Kozák's phone was turned on and registered by a telecommunications tower located near the Old Jewish Cemetery about 100 metres (330 ft) from the main building. The manhunt thus continued on the street level in this area, including the Jewish Quarter, Pařížská street, the Old Town Square, and Staroměstská metro station. Dozens of heavily armed police officers, including the Prague SWAT unit, were spread out in the crowded area where Christmas markets were taking place. Some plainclothes criminal detectives moved from the Celetná building into the wider area of Jan Palach Square in front of the main building. They did not enter the main building as they were informed that it had already been searched by other police units.
Charles University shooting
At around 14:54 CET, Kozák, armed with a pistol, exited the restroom and opened fire inside the main building's fourth-floor corridors and classrooms. He repeatedly entered classroom no. 423, targeting everyone inside. Once he moved further away from this classroom, one of the students led the remaining survivors to barricade the door. All of the people in this classroom were either killed or suffered life-threatening injuries.
A third-year history student named Tomáš Hercík has been credited with saving the lives of several people during the shooting. At 14:59, one of the students present at a lecture taking place on the second floor received a message about the ongoing killing spree, prompting Hercík to head to the fourth floor. While passing by the third floor, he noticed people mingling in the corridors, seemingly unaware of the ongoing attack. Upon reaching the fourth floor, he immediately heard gunshots and people's cries. While avoiding Kozák, Hercík entered numerous classrooms and warned the people inside about the shooting, making sure that they locked the doors, switched off the lights, and remained quiet. He then retreated to the third floor, where he continued warning classrooms.
Several of the students present in other fourth-floor classrooms fled to the exterior terrace, then climbed onto a ledge on the other side of the building before jumping to a third-floor balcony, sustaining injuries from the fall. Among them was student athlete Klára Holcová, who slipped from the ledge and fell to her death.
At 14:57:28, the medical emergency line received the first phone call about the attack. Police were alerted to the shooting at 14:59:06 and arrived about three minutes later. By that point, the gunfire had temporarily ceased, which led police officers to move slowly in "search mode" instead of the fast "contact mode". Students were evacuated from the lower floors to the Rudolfinum across the street, while the search party headed upstairs.
Outside the building, three plainclothes police detectives from a car theft unit entered Jan Palach Square through the Mánes Bridge and began forcing onlookers to take cover behind the Rudolfinum. As they were clearing out the square, at 15:11:19, Kozák started shooting from the fourth-floor exterior terrace using his AR-10 rifle. The gunfire caused panic outside the building, with crowds of people fleeing the nearby Charles Bridge.
Detective First Sergeant Jiří P. took cover behind a thick lamp post and started relaying information about Kozák's actions over the radio. Armed with only a Glock 19 pistol, he initially hesitated to shoot back as there were multiple windows within the perpetrator's vicinity, and he was concerned about hitting people who were inside the building. Reporter Jiří Forman, who took cover behind Jiří P., recorded Kozák's actions from the ground. Forman shouted at Kozák in an attempt to draw his attention away from students evacuating the building; Kozák appeared to have seen Forman and fired shots in his direction. Kozák was visible only for a few brief moments to those outside, as he kept moving around the terrace and out of view from the ground.
Meanwhile, officers who were searching the third floor were alerted that Kozák was shooting at people outside. It was first erroneously reported that the gunman was on the rooftop when he was actually on the fourth-floor terrace, directly above the officers searching the building. The officers then lost time searching for a route towards the fourth floor and then to the outer terrace, as the area is difficult to navigate; while the first three floors are accessible by the main central staircase, the position of the side staircase leading to the fourth floor was not immediately visible to the officers.