site.btaRoden Glas Editor Kameila Ilieva: The Czechs Are Stunned after Thursday's Mass Shooting

“The Czechs are stunned. They stop outside the Charles University in Prague and light candles, but for the majority they prefer to stay silent. They don’t want to answer questions or deal with journalists,” Kamelia Ilieva, chief editor of the Prague-based Roden Glas magazine, said for BTA’s BG World rubric after the mass shooting in Prague on Thursday, which left 14 people dead. 

According to Ilieva, those who were at the scene, are yet to process the horror that they went through and most probably will need psychiatric help. Already on Thursday they were being helped by specialists.  
Currently all universities have reinforced police security. Some schools are being checked as well.  

It is yet unclear what the reaction of the academic community will be a day after the attack. “I think it is still too early. Saturday has been declared a day of mourning before the Christmas holidays”, said Ilieva.  

„The Prime Minister Petr Fiala urged all to refrain from speculations and spreading unverified information until the official investigation has ended,” she added.  
Ilieva said that the killer apparently had mental health issues but otherwise was an excellent student. He looked very calm and level-headed to his peers. The mayor of the village where he lived with his parents said that the family had no problems. 

„Meanwhile from a social media post it has become clear that he had been planning this for a very long time. He wrote that his biggest dream was to carry out the biggest mass murder in history.  He wrote that he hated the world and wanted to leave as many victims as possible”, recounted Ilieva, adding: “I think that he deliberately chose the Christmas holidays because all over the world and especially here in Czechia this is a holiday which is respected and celebrated. I think that this was his aim - to make history.” 

Ilieva said that the Charles University has 60 buildings. The police knew that there was a shooter but did not know where the attack would take place.  „The choice of the Arts Faculty is not a coincidence because it is in the centre of Prague,” she said. 
  
She said that he had killed his own father that morning. Police are also now linking him to a murder in a forest outside Prague a few days ago, when a man and a two-month-old baby were shot and killed. 
 
„Currently the police is flooded with false signals for shootings, because people are so stressed”, said Ilieva.  
 
She recalled Thursday night’s statement by Interior Minister Vit Rakusan who said that this is the most horrible and dramatic event in Czechia’s history and that if it weren’t for the timely actions of the police, the victims would be many times more.

Thirteen people were killed, and the 14th victim was the shooter who killed himself. There are no reports of injured Bulgaria.