Polish mayor dies in stabbing
Ex-convict with history of violent crime launched attack at charity event Pawel Adamowicz was stabbed three times while onstage at a charity event.
The popular liberal mayor of Poland’s port city of Gdansk died Monday after being stabbed at a charity event by an ex-convict with a history of violent crime. The killing plunged the politically divided country into shock and grief and brought Poles into the streets for solemn vigils in a rare show of national unity.
Pawel Adamowicz, 53, died from the wounds inflicted by a 27-year-old man who stormed onstage Sunday evening while the mayor was addressing an audience during the “Lights to Heaven,” the finale of a nationwide fundraiser for sick children. Adamowicz had just expressed gratitude to the “generous” crowd, adding: “This is a wonderful time of sharing good things. You are dear.
“Gdansk is the most wonderful city in the world. Thank you!”
That’s when the assailant rushed up and stabbed him three times, then grabbed a mi- crophone to tell the audience that he acted in revenge against the country’s main opposition party, Civic Platform, of which Adamowicz was a member for many years, but left in 2015.
With the music still playing and pyrotechnics erupting onstage, the attacker told the stunned crowd he had been wrongly imprisoned under a Civic Platform-led government.
“I was jailed but innocent ... Civic Platform tortured me. That’s why Adamowicz just died,” he said. Adamowicz was taken to a hospital, where doctors struggled to save him, but a five-hour operation and blood transfusions were not enough, given the gravity of the injuries.
Identified by authorities only as Stefan W., he was arrested and charged Monday with murder. Deputy Chief Prosecutor Krzysztof Sierak said there were questions about the mental state of the attacker.