On July 16, a shooting took place on Święty Marcin Street in Poznań, Poland. The event was recorded by a witness on video, which was then posted online. The video shows a body of a man lying on the ground with a woman and a man standing next to it. The woman cries for help and tries to “wake up” the dead man. The shooter stands nearby with a pistol and fires one more round at the corpse. He then shoots himself in the head in front of the woman. In such cases, contradictory or simply untrue information often appears on the Internet. This is also the case this time, which is why we decided to describe this situation based on the findings of the authorities and confirmed information.
The video has been shared on the Internet and is often accompanied by false captions. For instance, BrutalCams account on the X portal (formerly Twitter) has shared it with a description incorrectly stating that the perpetrator was the husband of the woman visible in the recording, and the victim was her lover.
However, this is not confirmed by the facts and can be seen as an attempt to use this tragic situation to gain views – the recording with a false caption has been watched on the X portal nearly 6 million times.
Shooting in Poznan – Motive
In fact, the victim was Konrad Domagała, an activist of the Wolne Miasto Łódź association and a candidate for the Łódź City Council in 2014 from the Nowa Prawica election committee. He also ran a Facebook blog about politics, history and economics. The attacker was Mikołaj B., an employee of the Wielkopolska Provincial Office in Poznań. The police confirmed that the motive was most likely a heartbreak, as the perpetrator was the previous boyfriend of the woman present at the scene, and the victim was her current fiancé.
The perpetrator had a firearms permit, which was later confirmed by the police. However, according to reports, his weapons were taken away from him and his permit revoked more than a year ago. After parting with his girlfriend, he became the subject of observation by the services due to the suspicion that he might take his own life. He was admitted to a psychiatric hospital for observation, but after a few days he was released home. At that time, the police took away his firearms, but after numerous appeals, he managed to get them back.
The spokesman for the Provincial Police Headquarters in Poznań informed that Mikołaj B. had provided a relevant documentation and claimed that he felt fine and there was no threat. However, this was deemed insufficient, and the police officers referred him to a specialist from the Department of Administrative Proceedings in Poznań, who also did not state that depriving the future murderer of weapons was necessary. The police also interviewed people from his immediate environment, but none of them suggested that he might be a threat to himself or others.
Therefore, the police had no further grounds to deprive Mikołaj B. of the weapons for which he had a lawful permit. In March 2023, the previously confiscated weapons were returned to him, and in addition, he was also supposed to buy a Glock pistol at that time, which then became the murder weapon.
Summary
Dramatic scenes captured on videos or photos are often used for personal gain of people who share them on the Internet. Sometimes out of ignorance, and sometimes out of calculation, they add false captions that create a sensation or push their agenda, increasing the chance of reaching as many users as possible. Therefore, it is worth being careful in such situations and checking reliable sources of information so as to avoid getting misled.
Sources
Polsat News: https://www.polsatnews.pl/wiadomosc/2023-07-17/strzelanina-w-poznaniu-motywem-zazdrosc-o-kobiete/
Rzeczpospolita: https://www.rp.pl/przestepczosc/art38746441-strzelanina-w-poznaniu-napastnikowi-odebrano-bron-i-pozwolenie-odwolal-sie
