A shooting at a gay bar in Slovakia’s capital, Bratislava, has left two dead.
Information on a motive has not been released but local media reports say the gunman wrote anti-LGBT and antisemitic social media posts
A “radicalised teenager” shot and killed two men at a gay bar in Slovakia’s capital, Bratislava, Prime Minister Eduard Heger said on Thursday (October 13).
The shooting took place on Wednesday outside the Teplaren Bar, a city centre venue popular with LGBTQ+ locals. The attack happened at 7pm local time and immediately sparked a police manhunt.
Police later confirmed they found the gunman dead at another location one day later, on Thursday morning.
“Two people were murdered just because they were part of the LGBTQI community,“ Prime Minister Eduard Heger said at a press conference.
“This is unacceptable,“ he added: “In a free and democratic country, homosexuals have a right to live freely.”
I strongly condem a murder of two young people shot dead in #Bratislava last night by a radicalised teenager. No form of white supremacy, racism and #extremism against communities, incl. #LGBTI, can be tolerated. We will fight disinfo channels spreading hate &protect minorities
— Eduard Heger (@eduardheger) October 13, 2022
On Twitter, Heger later described the shooter as a “radicalised teenager”.
Local media later identified the shooter as 19-year-old Juraj Krajcik, the son of a prominent member of the far-right Vlast party.
The party had reportedly failed to get enough votes to enter parliament during the 2020 general election.
Witnesses told reporters they had heard up to 10 shots fired and reports suggest one of the victims was a Chinese language student who worked part-time at Teplaren.
Police said the shooters body was found in a park, in a different part of the city, at around 8am on Thursday.
While police have yet to confirm a motive behind the shooting, Slovak media reports the shooter had posted messages with the phrases “hate crime” and “gay bar” hashtagged on Twitter.
Further reports say he had posted an anti-LGBT and antisemitic ‘manifesto’ and left messages on a Twitter account saying he did not regret his actions.
Police asked for patience as investigate before confirming the attack as a hate crime. More below:
@ZuzanaCaputova, president of Slovakia visited the crime scene in Bratislava, where two people were killed in front of #LGBT+ friendly pub.
Hate killed two innocent people. Hate destroyed families. Hate took away someone’s best friend. Outrageous. pic.twitter.com/arawU1e0Sv— Radek (@ultraradek) October 13, 2022
Homophobia is a deadly beast.
Today’s shooting at a gay bar in Slovakia’s capital Bratislava has left two dead. According to the police, they were customers. The perpetrator, who fired multiple shots, is on the run.
My thoughts are with the families of the murdered victims. https://t.co/g9CpsmC4Q7— Dr Lucie Fremlova (@InclusiveLucie) October 12, 2022
My thoughts are with the family & friends of the victims of yesterday’s horrific attack in Bratislava & everyone in the #LGBTIQ+ community affected by it.
Words can become weapons. Hate kills. As politicians, we must weigh every word we say before it’s too late.
📷 tasr pic.twitter.com/TuFtdAXC9l
— Zuzana Čaputová (@ZuzanaCaputova) October 13, 2022
two gay men dead after a shooting in a 🏳️🌈 bar in bratislava. two gay men dead because of a white nazi supremacist. he posted an extremist manifesto several hours before the shooting and he knew what he was doing. do not stay silent about this
— shiroin ✦ (@SHIROINTHOS) October 13, 2022
since there’s no international media coverage of what happened yesterday; 2 men were shot in slovakia for being gay. how the fuck is this something that just happens in the 21st century.
— richie/crow/yuni🎗 (@uyungis) October 13, 2022