Kraków shooter: photo from a Łódź protest is disinformation

A photograph from a March demonstration in Łódź is being shared on social media in Poland, Czechia and other countries as a picture of the Kraków attacker. Polish fact-checking journalists established that the photo shows a completely different person, and the perpetrator's motive has not yet been determined.

Who is actually in the photo

The picture shows a tall young man with long hair, dressed in black and marked with a yellow circle, in a column of demonstrators carrying banners reading “Solidarity with people on the move – refugees welcome” and “Stop the war – no states, no borders, no problems.” The Łódź event, linked to a march against racism, did take place in March. But the attacker, whom the media named as Michał Oksiński, does not appear in any photo from it and bears little resemblance to the man pictured.

Journalists managed to find and interview the protester himself. According to them, he is working with lawyers to monitor the accounts that spread his photo and link it to the attacker.

According to the fact-checkers, the false version was launched on social media by a former journalist, Hermann Tertsch, an MEP from Spain's VOX party, and was then spread by others, including former MEP Jacek Saryusz-Wolski (who later deleted his post). In Czechia the photo was published by Michal Poláček, a candidate for the Chamber of Deputies for Motoristé sobě, and the Manifest.cz page, with 133,000 followers, spread it through hundreds of reposts.

What is known about the motive

Poland's Interior Minister Marcin Kierwiński said on Saturday, 7 November 2026, just hours after the tragedy, that the perpetrator held very radical views and was fascinated by far-right ideologies. Many Polish officials reacted critically. National Prosecutor's Office spokesman Przemysław Nowak said it was too early to speak of a motive and that there was no data to determine one.

On Sunday, 8 November, Kierwiński adjusted his words: he recalled that his first statement had also spoken of the need for verification, and stressed that the case must be investigated thoroughly. Prosecutors added that no items bearing the symbols of any particular ideology were found in Oksiński's apartment: a yellow flag with a snake hung on the wall, the historical Gadsden flag from 18th-century America, which has no negative connotations.

The attacker himself died on Monday, 9 November 2026, in hospital from severe wounds sustained in a shootout with police shortly after the attack. Because of his critical condition, investigators did not manage to formally question him.

Around Prague, based on reporting by denik.cz