The incident occurred on the night of June 2, 2019, in Bolesławiec, outside Club Imperium on Gdańska Street. Following a misunderstanding with the venue’s staff, a 29-year-old resident of Lubin County at the time took a gun from his car and fired four shots (two of them can be seen in the surveillance video provided to the editorial office). One of the bullets wounded a 27-year-old (now 29-year-old) club employee.
Attorney Wojciech Kasprzyk, who represents the wounded man, explained how the shooting happened.
– Several men came (to the club – editor’s note) looking for trouble; they were quite aggressive – attorney Wojciech Kasprzyk described the situation before the shooting. – The men were asked to leave the club (by security staff – editor’s note), after which they started a disturbance. The person driving the vehicle, that is, the defendant, fired at least four shots toward the people there, including in the direction of my client. The entire video is not included because it would show the wounded man collapsing to the ground and fainting. The video indicates that the defendant knows how to handle a weapon well and does so smoothly – the attorney adds.
Bolesławiec police officers, together with colleagues from the Criminal Department of the Provincial Police Headquarters in Wrocław and supported by Lower Silesian counterterrorism officers, arrested Damian W. five days later. The shooter was charged with three offenses: three counts of attempted murder, endangering people in his vicinity when firing the shots, and possessing a firearm without a permit. He faced up to life imprisonment.
The verdict handed down two years later was much more lenient: the court sentenced Damian W. to only two years in prison and ordered him to pay PLN 10,000 to the wounded club employee. The prosecutor and attorney Wojciech Kasprzyk, representing the injured man, have appealed the verdict.
– I find it astonishing that the expert who spoke about this incident – Wojciech Kasprzyk recounts the course of the case – said that the man who fired the pistol did not know it was a firearm loaded with live ammunition. He thought it was a blank-firing gun. If this man aimed at people at chest height, what was he aiming for? For fun? If it was for fun, he could have taken a water pistol and sprayed other people. And here, not only did he flee the scene, as can be seen in the video, but he also threw the weapon into the river. Why did he do that? To conceal evidence of the crime. The recording also shows that he noticed he had shot a man in the leg, became frightened, got into the car and fled without providing first aid – the attorney adds.
In the opinion of the prosecutor and the injured party’s attorney, the sentence is too lenient. In the appeal, they requested nine years in prison for the defendant and PLN 100,000 in compensation for the injured man for losses that cannot be quantified: pain, surgeries, recovery, as well as the psychological breakdown he has experienced as a result of being shot. The prosecution and the injured party’s attorney are hoping for a different ruling from the appellate court.
Video footage: surveillance from Club Imperium