Unrequited love the most likely motive. Gunman in Poznań shoots a man in front of his fiancee and then kills himself

Greater Poland Police spokesman Andrzej Borowiak said in a statement he sent us on Monday morning that one of the most likely motives of the Poznań shooter was "unrequited love". Poznań-Stare Miasto District Prosecutor's Office has launched an investigation into the incident.

Borowiak added the police were still collecting evidence. "At the scene they have secured the weapon, a Glock handgun. They also found several witnesses who were immediately questioned. We have secured CCTV footage."

The spokesman also said a video recorded by an eye-witness had been published on Sunday on social media. "He recorded part of this incident with a cell phone. We identified this person. He's a foreigner, who gave us the recording and whom we questioned as a witness," Borowiak explained. He added the autopsies of both men would be carried out on Tuesday.

In 2018, the shooter had been issued a gun licence, which was temporarily revoked in 2022 after the man threated he would harm himself. Once he got better, he requested his licence be reinstated, submitting a positive medical opinion. The request was approved.

The incident took place in a restaurant garden in front of a hotel at Święty Marcin Street - one of Poznań's main avenues. According to witnesses and what can be seen in footage posted online, the shooter approached the couple's table and gunned the man down. While the shocked woman was screaming for help, the gunman shot himself in the head.

Poznań-Stare Miasto District Prosecutor's Office has launched two separate inquiries: homicide and encouraging suicide.

Friends of the gunned down man informed on social media he was an artist and blogger. Kamil Grzebyta, a councillor from Murowana Goślina - a town in Poznań County, said the man had died before his fiancee's eyes.

"He was an artist, a blogger, always smiling and kind. We would work together, record films, I even had the pleasure to show him around Murowana Goślina when he visited me during election campaign. Our society has lost a valuable man who still had plenty to offer. His murderer was also my acquaintance. He too was a young, intelligent man with perspectives, whom I would never suspect of reaching for a gun and pulling the trigger," Grzebyta said.

The death of the artists also shocked the community centered around the band Heroes Orchestra, with which the shot man would cooperate. "A great heart of the Heroes community, a wonderful man, artist, a passionate person, organizer of our concert in Łódź," we read.

"Rzeczpospolita" reported the gunned down man had been an activist working for Wolne Miasto Łódź association as well as a candidate in the 2014 election to Łódź city council. He ran with the New Right-Janusz Korwin-Mikke, but did not get elected. The man also worked for Łódź Philharmonic Listener Service Center and kept a Facebook blog about politics, history, and economy.

"Głos Wielkopolski" said the shooter worked for the Greater Poland Voivodeship Office, whose spokesperson later confirmed this information.