Surgeon having lunch near Krakow shooting undoubtedly saved officer’s life, colleague says

A surgeon who was having lunch near the Krakow shooting undoubtedly saved a police officer’s life, a colleague has said, as further details emerge about the two officers hailed for preventing the gunman from killing more people. The BBC reports that Professor Michal Pedziwiatr and Dr Mateusz Wierdak were in central Krakow with their families when gunshots were heard in and around the city’s Main Market Square.

The shooting, which the BBC reports left six people dead and 15 injured, unfolded on Saturday after a gunman began firing at random in the historic centre of the city, shortly before 15:00 local time. The two senior constables identified by the BBC as Jakub Kulik and Artur Moranski were shot while subduing the perpetrator, and were described on Sunday as having emerged from comas and being hailed as true heroes. A British national and an Austrian woman were among those killed, alongside four Poles, according to the BBC.

Lunch interrupted by gunfire

Pedziwiatr told the Polish outlet Fakt that his son ran up to warn him that people were being shot at and falling to the ground. When the two surgeons reached the scene, they treated both the apparent attacker and the police officers wounded during the gunfight. Pedziwiatr said that when it comes to saving lives, it does not matter who is who, and he took care of other victims and the perpetrator while Wierdak worked on the officer shot in the chest.

The detail that has drawn most attention is Wierdak’s immediate treatment of the chest wound. Pedziwiatr described how Wierdak stuffed bandages into the officer’s chest and stuck his hands in, saying that without that intervention the outcome could have been very different because of the long wait for an ambulance. Pedziwiatr also said he called John Paul II Hospital and insisted the officer be taken there because, in his view, the hospital had the best chance of giving him the specialist care needed for that type of injury.

Heroes, volunteers and witnesses

The BBC also reports that six Dublin Civil Defence volunteers who were on a city break assisted in the aftermath, providing CPR and haemorrhage control, and that prosecutors have launched an investigation into the attack with a unit specialising in terrorist offences taking the lead. Poland’s Interior Minister Marcin Kierwinski said everything suggests the suspect was fascinated by far-right ideologies and held ultra-nationalist views. The 24-year-old Polish attacker remains in a critical condition, the BBC reports, and has not yet been named by the authorities.

For UK readers, the human details matter as much as the investigation. Ruby Catherine Warren, from London, told the BBC she heard gunfire and yelled at her friends to run, and Tom Brook, from West Yorkshire, described seeing paramedics working on someone outside a shop and a covered body nearby. Their accounts, reported by the BBC, place British tourists at the heart of a terrifying few minutes in a square that is a familiar stop on city breaks from the UK to Poland.

ADVERTISEMENT

Why it matters

The story matters because it shows how survival in a mass shooting often depends on the first minutes, before ambulances arrive. The quick actions of two off-duty surgeons, two wounded officers and volunteers from Dublin are being credited with stopping the death toll from rising higher, and the British victim’s family and the London and West Yorkshire witnesses connect the attack directly to people back home.

What happens next

Polish prosecutors will complete their terror investigation, the suspect’s condition will be monitored, and the mayor of Krakow’s request for honorary citizenship titles for the two officers will be considered. Main Market Square reopened on Sunday evening after the security cordon was lifted, the BBC reports, as the city begins to reckon with what happened.