Polish mayor stabbed in the heart at fundraiser
A convicted criminal with a knife rushed on to the stage during the finale of a charity event Sunday night and stabbed a Polish mayor in the heart and abdomen before shouting that he did it for political revenge, in an attack that left doctors fighting to save the politician’s life.
Gdansk Mayor Pawel Adamowicz grabbed his belly and collapsed in front of the audience at the “Lights to Heaven” fundraiser organized by the Great Orchestra of Christmas Charity, the country’s most important charity.
Doctors reanimated Adamowicz on the spot and then transported him to Medical University of Gdansk, where he underwent five hours of surgery, said Dr. Tomasz Stefaniak, one of the doctors treating Adamowicz.
Almost seven hours after the assault, Stefaniak told reporters early Monday that “the patient is alive,” triggering applause, but added that the mayor remained “in a very serious condition.”
“The next hours will decide everything,” Stefaniak said, appealing for thoughts and prayers for the popular mayor.
After the knife attack, the assailant shouted from the stage that he had been wrongly imprisoned under a previous national government led by Civic Platform, a party to which the mayor formerly belonged. He said his name was Stefan and that “I was jailed but innocent . ... Civic Platform tortured me. That’s why Adamowicz just died.”
Police said the suspect was a 27year-old with a criminal record and had carried out bank robberies. A police spokesman, Mariusz Ciarka, said the attacker appeared to have mental problems and gained access to the area with a media badge.
He was arrested and is under investigation.
Adamowicz, 53, has been mayor of Gdansk since 1998. He was part of the democratic opposition born in that city under the leadership of Lech Walesa during the 1980s.