Social media sites must prevent the glorification of violent perpetrators, a leading criminologist has warned, after the Prague shooter’s dark posts were revealed.
Mass shooter David Kozac posted on his Telegram channel that he intended to carry out a “school shooting and possibly suicide” at yesterday before he conducted the attack at Charles University.
The Russian-speaking star student also praised a teenage schoolgirl who carried out a mass shooting in the west of Russia earlier this month, killing one before she committed suicide.
On the controversial platform, he wrote that the schoolgirl had “helped” him through her actions.
Prague shooter’s violent posts revealed as expert warns social media sites must not glorify killers
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He continued: “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 [she] became the last point. It was as if she had come to my aid from heaven just in time.”
Preliminary reports also linked him to the killing of a man and a two-month-old infant in the east of Prague on Friday.
The shooter also reportedly shot his father dead in Hostoun, a town west of the capital, in the hours before his attack at the Charles University campus.
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A leading criminologist has warned GB News that sites must avoid the glorification of mass murderers.
Dr Nick Cowen, an Associate Professor in Criminology at the University of Lincoln, told GB News: “Popular sites and sources should avoid language that glorifies violent perpetrators.”
He added: “There’s no evidence at the moment to suggest that social media, whether on Telegram or elsewhere, produces a more violent society even if it has played a role in rare individual cases,” but said that they should take precautions to help prevent killing sprees.
Dr Cowen said: “In terms of preventing spree killings, the best authorities can do is to try to keep weapons, especially automatic weapons, away from people with aggressive tendencies.”
It is understood that the killer legally owned several firearms.
People were seen running through the streets of PragueX/@LeoMenindezHe was seen on the balcony of the university department where he fired at people in the square below with a long-barreled rifle attached to both a tripod and a long lens.
But Dr Cowen warned that regardless of precautions taken, it is difficult to predict what might spark them.
“Isolated anti-social cases of mass violence are incredibly rare so all the more shocking when we see them. The minority of people capable of such acts tend to have a history of aggression and impulsivity but very little can predict such an extreme act in advance.
“It is also very hard to predict what would 'trigger' such individuals.”
Czech police said last night that his attack would have been difficult to predict.
A national day of mourning has been announced for Saturday.
National flags will fly at half-staff. Christmas events have been canned.
Prague is “unbearably silent” this morning, according to local media, but police continued working through the night to gather further forensic evidence in the university department where the shooter fired from.
Czech police have today released bodycam footage of police hunting for the shooter in the university.
According to reports, the attacker was situated on the roof before turning the gun on himself upon seeing that police were encircling him.
The director of Prague Police has also confirmed that multiple piles of ammunition were seen in the corridors by officers sweeping the building.