Ostrava hospital attack

The Ostrava hospital attack was a mass shooting that occurred on 10 December 2019 at the University Hospital Ostrava in Ostrava, Czech Republic. A total of seven people were killed in the attack, and two others were injured.[4][5][6] The illegally armed perpetrator, 42-year-old Ctirad Vitásek, left the scene before the arrival of police and committed suicide as police closed in on him later during the day.[1] Vitásek had three previous criminal convictions, including one for a violent crime,[5] and a previous hospitalization in a psychiatric ward.[7]

Ostrava hospital attack
University Hospital Ostrava
Attack site Attack site (Czech Republic)
Location	University Hospital Ostrava, Ostrava, Czech Republic
Date	10 December 2019 c. 7:15 a.m.
Attack type	Mass shooting, murder–suicide
Weapons	CZ 75B semi-automatic pistol (illegal)[1][2]
Deaths	8 (including the perpetrator)
Injured	2[1]
Perpetrator	Ctirad Vitásek
Motive	Uncertain (possibly hypochondriacal depression)[3]

Attack

Vitásek entered the hospital in the early morning and wandered through its hallways. He briefly stopped at the cardiology waiting room and then at the gastroenterology waiting room, both of which were almost empty.[8]

He then entered the traumatology waiting room on the third floor of the hospital building at around 7:15 a.m. There were about thirty people in the room, all of them either partially immobile (on a wheelchair or with a limb in splint) or accompanying a partially immobile family member. Vitásek first crossed through the waiting room towards the doctor's office, however the doors there were still locked. He rattled the locked doors, but his apparent attempt to open them failed.[9] He then stood quietly with an illegal CZ 75B pistol in one hand in a low position by his leg.[10] He raised the pistol to his own head for a few seconds, but did not pull the trigger.[10] Several witnesses expressed regret that there had not been anyone legally armed inside to stop Vitásek at that moment.[10]

After this, Vitásek opened fire on the people inside. After firing three shots, his weapon jammed. According to an eyewitness, it was clear that Vitásek was not practiced in using a gun. It took him about five seconds to clear the malfunction. He was visibly shaking and loudly gritting his teeth.[9]

After clearing the malfunction, Vitásek continued to shoot people in the room, aiming at victims' heads and necks, killing six adults. Two of the victims were off-duty prison guards, one with a leg in a splint and the other accompanying his minor daughter. A third victim in the waiting room also had law enforcement training, having left the prison service ten years prior. At the time of the attack, all three were unarmed.[11][8] Three other people sustained injuries, one of them dying several days later.

When first responders arrived, Vitásek had already escaped the scene.[1][12]

Police response

Police received the first emergency call at 7:19 a.m. and the first police unit reached the location of the incident five minutes later. By the time they arrived Vitásek had already left the hospital.[1] All Czech policemen are armed with pistols and a typical patrol car includes two policemen who usually have at least one select-fire rifle (HK MP5, MP7 or G36) in the trunk, as well as bullet proof vests. Aside from these general purpose patrols Czech police also have a system of special "first order" patrol cars, whose two policemen have heavy body armor, a select-fire rifle each, and extensive active killer training. The first order patrol cars are positioned so as to reach any similar incident within ten minutes anywhere in the country and thus overcome the delay needed for the arrival of a complete tactical team.

Vitásek drove away from the hospital in a grey Renault Laguna, at some point taking down its registration plates, possibly to avoid detection by automatic traffic cameras. Three hours later, Vitásek arrived at his parents' house in Jilešovice, 8 kilometres (5.0 mi) from the hospital.[8] There he confessed to the crime and told his mother that he was going to kill himself.[1] His mother called the police and informed them about her son being the perpetrator, his whereabouts and a description of his car.[8] By this time the police had arrested eight men in the hospital, its vicinity and elsewhere in Ostrava who fit the initial general description of Vitásek, which later turned out to be completely wrong.[8]

Vitásek's car was found by a helicopter shortly after his mother's call in Děhylov.[8] As ground units closed in, he self-inflicted a gunshot wound to his head. Although he was initially conscious and communicated with first responders, he succumbed to his injury after 30 minutes of resuscitation attempts.[1]

Possible motive

Vitásek's family and friends had observed his mental state gradually deteriorating over a long period of time. According to them his mental state significantly worsened about three months before the attack. Vitásek became obsessed with a belief that he suffered from a fatal illness, possibly pancreatic cancer. However, numerous hospital visits and detailed examinations ruled this possibility out. Vitásek was seeking further medical examinations while on sick leave from work about a month before the attack.[7]

During one medical examination, Vitásek's partner told the doctor to issue a request for psychiatric evaluation, claiming that he had become "impossible to live with". She stated that Vitásek was convinced that he would die imminently, often breaking down and crying.[7]

Although a psychiatric evaluation was arranged, Vitásek did not go through with it. Instead, he sought further examination for cancer. Vitásek had spent some time in a psychiatric ward two years before the attack following hospitalisation for tetany, which is often accompanied by depression.[7]

Origin of murder weapon

Vitásek had three previous criminal convictions, including one for a violent crime.[5] He had also been hospitalized in a psychiatric ward. Both of these factors rendered him ineligible to legally possess a firearm in the Czech Republic.

Vitásek used a CZ 75 pistol that was made about 30 years before as a non-functional cut-away replica for purposes of education and training. This free-to-buy cutaway was later illegally modified to full functionality. Police experts had not encountered a similar conversion of a cut-away before and noted that it was done in a very sophisticated way. Nevertheless, the firearm jammed at least once during the attack.[13]

See also

Uherský Brod shooting, an earlier mass shooting in the Czech Republic

References

1. "Střelec v ostravské nemocnici zabil šest lidí. Policie ho našla, je po smrti [A shooter in an Ostrava hospital killed six people. Police found him, he is dead]". idnes.cz (in Czech). Retrieved 10 December 2019.
2. "Střelec z Ostravy byl stavební technik. Tvrdil, že je nemocný a že ho nikdo nechce léčit, říká jeho šéf". Hospodářské noviny. 10 December 2019. Retrieved 10 December 2019.
3. "Kdo byl střelec z ostravské nemocnice? Milovník fotbalu, stavař a revizor [Who was the Ostrava hospital shooter? Football lover, builder and transport ticket inspector]". novinky.cz. 12 December 2019. Retrieved 12 December 2019.
4. https://ct24.ceskatelevize.cz/domaci/3003119-utok-v-ostrave-ma-sedmou-obet-tezce-zranena-zena-zemrela
5. "Online reportáž: Střelba v ostravské nemocnici [Online report: Shooting in Ostrava hospital]". idnes.cz (in Czech). Retrieved 10 December 2019.
6. "Czech shooting: Gunman kills six at hospital in Ostrava". BBC. Retrieved 10 December 2019.
7. "Střelec z Ostravy dostal žádanku na psychiatrii, řekla příbuzná [Ostrava shooter had had a request for psychiatric evaluation issued according to a family member]". novinky.cz (in Czech). Retrieved 16 December 2019.
8. "Na stopu střelce přivedla policii jeho matka. Její informace byly klíčové [Mother sent police on her son. Her information was detrimental]". idnes.cz (in Czech). Retrieved 10 December 2019.
9. "Rozhovor s přímou účastnicí střelby ve FN Ostrava [Interview with direct participant of shooting in Ostrava hospital]". ceskatelevize.cz (in Czech). Retrieved 11 January 2011.
10. "Svědci střelby v Ostravě: Chvíli stál s pistolí u nohy, přiložil si ji i k hlavě [Witnesses of Ostrava shooting: He was first standing with pistol in hand, then put it against own head]". denik.cz (in Czech). Retrieved 10 December 2019.
11. "Dvě z obětí střelby byli příslušníci Vězeňské služby, měli zrovna volno [Two of the victims were prison guards, they were off duty]" (in Czech). Retrieved 10 December 2019.
12. "Když jsme střelce našli, komunikoval, řekl šéf severomoravských policistů [When we found the shooter, he was communicating, said the Moravian-Silesian Region police chief]". idnes.cz (in Czech). Retrieved 10 December 2019.
13. "Střelec v Ostravě měl výcvikovou zbraň, zasekávala se. Obětí mohlo být více [Shooter in Ostrava had a demonstration gun, it jammed. There might have been more victims]". novinky.cz (in Czech). Retrieved 21 January 2020.