David Kozák

On 21 December 2023, fourteen people were killed and 22 injured in a mass shooting by a postgraduate history student within the main Faculty of Arts building of Charles University in central Prague, Czech Republic.

Another three people were injured when the perpetrator opened fire towards the streets from the faculty's fourth-floor rooftop terrace.

After having been engaged by the police, the 24-year-old perpetrator killed himself.

Before the attack, his father was found dead at his home in Hostouň.

At the time of the shooting, the perpetrator was one in a pool of about 4,000 suspects in a double murder case that took place six days earlier, 25 km away, in the Klánovice Forest.

The lead investigator confirmed that the police had not yet reviewed the perpetrator's potential as a suspect in the earlier killings when the Prague shootings took place, but evidence found in the latter event did link the two incidents.

At a press conference on 22 December, the chief detective of Prague's 1st General Crime Unit stated that Kozák had been one of about 4,000 suspects in the Klánovice Forest case.

However, because he lived in the Central Bohemian Region, they were a few days short of being able to prevent the shootings.

Central Bohemia is a separate region from the city of Prague, and each region in the country has a separate police directorate.

Later that day, the police confirmed that a firearm found at Kozák's house had been ballistically matched with the bullets used in the Klánovice Forest murders.

On 27 December 2023, reported that police investigators had found a letter in Kozák's home in which he confessed to the murders in Klánovice Forest.

On 21 December 2023 at 12:20 CET, the Central Bohemian Police received two phone calls, from Kozák's mother and a female friend, stating that Kozák was planning to take his own life and that he was en route from his hometown of Hostouň to Prague.

At 12:45, the police entered Kozák's home, and found the body of his father, who was killed by three shots into the head.

A thorough search of the house was hindered by improvised explosive devices, which were decommissioned by specialists later that day.

The police discovered that Kozák was a student of the Faculty of Arts at Charles University.

A search warrant was issued and published immediately afterwards; the warrant indicated that Kozák was armed and dangerous.

Police also commenced a security operation at Václav Havel Airport Prague, where Kozák worked, and where his father worked in the airport security department.

Prague police officers entered the main building of the Faculty of Arts on Jan Palach Square at 13:30 CET, where they searched some of the premises and also learned that Kozák was supposed to attend a lecture at 14:00 in a different building on Celetná street.

As the Central Bohemian Police Directorate had issued the search warrant for an armed person likely to take his own life, the officers left the main building after 14:20 without taking any action there.

Multiple police units were sent to evacuate the building of the Faculty of Arts on Celetná street, where they believed Kozák would be present in a lecture room; the evacuation was finished at 14:22.

Kozák was not found in the building or in its vicinity.

At 14:38, Kozák's phone was turned on in the area of close to the Old Town Square.

The manhunt thus continued in this area, including a nearby metro station.

The area is about five minutes walk from the main Faculty of Arts building.

At 14:59 CET, as the manhunt continued, the police received their first calls about a shooting taking place in the main Faculty of Arts building on Jan Palach Square, a twelve-minute walk from the evacuated building on Celetná.

The perpetrator opened fire inside the building's fourth floor corridors and classrooms, while staff and students barricaded themselves in rooms using furniture.

Several of those inside fled the building by jumping onto a rooftop terrace from the exterior ledges.

The first officer, a criminal police detective, entered the building at 15:02 CET who was joined by uniformed policemen at 15:05 CET.

After the arrival of the police, no gunshots were heard from within the building.

Based on information given by students, the police searched for the perpetrator on the upper floors, while other officers started evacuating students from the lower floors to the Rudolfinum across the street.

The attack was the deadliest mass murder in the Czech Republic since its independence in 1993, surpassing the 2020 Bohumín arson attack.

On 15 December 2023, a 32-year-old father and his two-month-old daughter in a stroller were shot dead in on the eastern outskirts of Prague, approximately 25 km away from the later Prague shootings.

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.

On 20 December, police said that they had no leads in the case but were continuing to search for the perpetrator.

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.

Five hours after the attack at Charles University, the police released information that they had found evidence in David Kozák's house linking him to the Klánovice Forest murders.

Police officers were searching for the perpetrator on the upper floors when they were alerted at 15:11 that he was shooting at people from the outside, with mistaken information that the perpetrator was on the rooftop, while in reality he was on 4th floor rooftop terrace.

The gunfire also caused panic outside, with crowds fleeing Charles Bridge.

Police lost some time searching for a route outside, as the area was 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.