On June 13, 2025, a verdict was handed down at the District Court in Legnica in the case of last year’s murder in Brunów – 20-year-old Bartosz Ż. was charged with intentional murder – shooting with a firearm – of his grandmother’s partner’s son – recalls Liliana Łukasiewicz, press spokesperson for the District Prosecutor’s Office in Legnica

The court sentenced the defendant – in accordance with the prosecutor’s request – to 15 years in prison, taking into account that at the time of the crime the perpetrator was a juvenile offender, meaning that he had only just turned 19 when he committed the act.

The court also ordered Bartosz Ż. to pay compensatory damages of PLN 30,000 each to the victim’s mother and daughter.

The prosecutor assessed the verdict as justified.

Circumstances of the case

In April 2024, Bartosz Ż. came to Brunów to stay with his grandmother and her partner, whom he called his grandfather, to help run their business. The victim, the grandmother’s partner’s son, also lived in the same house.

Relations between him and Bartosz Ż. were tense. The victim abused alcohol, after which he was malicious and intrusive toward the defendant. Bartosz Ż. found this difficult to endure. In messages to his mother and sister, he complained about the victim’s behavior, wrote that he was afraid of him and that the man would “go too far”.

About a week before the incident, the victim began drinking more than usual after his employment contract was terminated, which created even greater tension between him and Bartosz Ż. At that point, the defendant took the victim’s Walther P 38 pistol and hid it in his own room.

On May 22, 2024, during the night, an argument broke out between the men in the kitchen of the house. During it, the victim went to the workshop, and the defendant followed him. Before that, however, he took the pistol hidden in his room. In the workshop, Bartosz Ż. fired two accurate shots at the victim’s head from close range, causing his immediate death.

Investigators: – According to forensic medical experts, the cause of the victim’s sudden and violent death was gunshot wounds to the head and cervical spine. The injuries were caused by two shots fired from close range, at different angles, from a short firearm – at the victim’s head.

Bartosz Ż. was arrested and charged with intentional murder. He was placed in pre-trial detention.

Prosecutor’s Office:

From the outset, the above-mentioned individual did not deny that he had shot the victim. During the first interrogations, however, he claimed that the shots had been fired accidentally. Ultimately, Bartosz Ż. gave a factual account consistent with the findings made during the inspection of the crime scene, the autopsy and the ballistics report (shots fired from close range). He stated that he had fired the shots out of fear. The victim was not holding any dangerous object.

The investigation established that Bartosz Ż. was sane at the time of the crime. He was not under the influence of alcohol, intoxicants or psychotropic substances.

The defendant had a good reputation among his family and neighbors. He had no previous criminal record.

For the murder, Bartosz Ż. faced a sentence of between 10 and 30 years in prison or even life imprisonment.