It’s thought police were on the lookout for a shooter after the deaths of a man and his baby a week earlier
A student who gunned down dozens of people in Prague is suspected of murdering two people in a ‘random’ attack a week before.
David Kozak, 24, is thought to have shot dead his father on Thursday before using a rifle to pick off students from a rooftop at Charles University, where he was an apparently high-achieving history student.
He reportedly fantasised about ‘becoming a maniac’ and was inspired into action by a deadly school shooting carried out by a 14-year-old girl in Russia earlier this month.
At least 14 people are dead and 25 wounded following the attack, which is the deadliest in the Czech Republic for decades. Kozak was found dead the same day.
Now Czech investigators are linking him to the deaths of a father and his newborn baby in the Klanovicky forest near Prague just days prior.
Police spokesman Martin Vondráček said: ‘We are working very seriously with the fact that the attacker from the Faculty of Philosophy is also responsible for the two victims from the end of last week in Klanovicky.
‘As far as Klanovicky is concerned, it is not known that the victims were in any way connected to the perpetrator.
The gunman was seen on the rooftop with a rifle
‘I am convinced that the victims were completely randomly selected by a person without any criminal history.’
Mr Vondráček said he was assured by Prague’s chief detective that it had been impossible to identify the suspect before the university shootings despite a ‘huge number of actions’ by investigators.
A picture is steadily emerging of Czech authorities having feared an impending tragedy which they were ultimately only narrowly unable to prevent.
A British policeman who got caught in the chaos said he noticed a large police presence in the area the night before and thinks Czech police were on the lookout for a potential shooter.
Czech authorities scoured Klanovicky forest for clues about last week’s double murder
The officer, named only as Dan, and his family were forced to free a hail of bullets and saw people ‘laying in pools of blood’.
He told The Sun: ‘I think they had prior knowledge of a likely outrage. I saw terrible carnage and believe at least 30 people must be dead.’
Police found the body of Kovak’s father, in the village of Hostoun, 13 miles outside Prague, more than two hours before the university shootings started.
Local media reports suggest officers at some point learned of a social media post in which Kozak threatened to ‘do school shooting and possibly suicide’.
Charles University’s Faculty of Philosophy at Jan Palach Square in Prague was attacked (Picture: Metro)
Armed officers are said to have evacuated a building where Kovak was due to attend a lecture but he was able to start firing from another site just over 25 minutes later.
The post linked to Kozak, written on a Russian-language Telegram channel, reveals a fascination with Alina Afanaskina, who used her father’s shotgun to kill a classmate and wound five others in the Russian city of Bryansk on December 7.
The message said: ‘Alina Afanaskina helped me too much. I always wanted to kill, I thought I would become a maniac in the future.
‘I realised that it was much more profitable to do mass murders rather than serial ones.
‘I sat. Waited. Dreamed. Wanted … but Alina became the last point. It was as if she had come to my aid from heaven just in time.’
A senior Czech government minister has said investigators do not believe Kozak followed any extremist ideologies or groups.
All national flags in the Czech Republic will fly at half-staff on Saturday and many events planned for Christmas have been cancelled.
An official statement from Charles University said: ‘We mourn the lost lives of members of our university community, express our deepest condolences to all those who are bereaved, and our thoughts are with all those affected by the tragedy.’
David Kozak has been named as the killer by Czech investigators
Petr Pavel, the president of the Czech Republic, said: ‘I am shocked by the events at the Faculty of Arts of Charles University.
‘I would like to express my deep regret and sincere condolences to the families and relatives of the victims that the shooting claimed.
‘I want to thank the citizens for respecting the instructions of the security forces and providing maximum cooperation.’
It’s thought police were on the lookout for a killer before the mass shooting after two people were found dead in a nearby forest.