Czech Republic: Cousin of crossbow victim says shooter shouted "You black whores I'll kill you!"

The Czech Press Agency has reported that a man who was shot in the head with a crossbow, allegedly while committing a robbery at the end of April in the town of Chotěbuz (Karviná district), passed away early this morning at Ostrava Teaching Hospital. The tragic incident took place last Thursday. The 23-year-old victim immediately lost consciousness upon being shot. According to the Czech Press Agency, he was one of three men who were allegedly set on robbing a particular house in Chotěbuz which appears to be unoccupied.

News server Romea.cz has learned, however, that there were four men at the scene: Gabriel Gujda, two of his sons, and his cousin Martin, who passed away today. “We went to the old demolition site, where a derelict building has been standing for many years. It was demolished down to its foundations. The boys wanted to take a look to see if they could find some old scrap or sheet metal there. That guy evidently saw me turning the car around near his building. He came out holding a crossbow,” Gujda described the start of the tragic incident to news server Romea.cz.

“He shouted ‘You black whores I’ll kill you’. The boys didn’t even make to the demolition site, they ran back to the car shouting: ‘Dad, Dad he has a weapon’. My oldest boy jumped into the car on my side, the other guy from the other side and Martin tried to get in the back seat. I, in the meantime, got out of the car because I wanted to see what was happening. I saw him intentionally aim at Martin’s head and then hit him with the arrow. He was about seven meters away from us,” Gujda told news server Romea.cz.

“I ran up the street and asked him to call an ambulance. With a smile on his face, he went home and put on a t-shirt. He came back holding a roll in one hand, which he was eating, and an arrow in the other. He walked over to Martin, who was lying on the ground, and measured how deeply the arrow had sunk into his head. He said to the boys: ‘Pull out the arrow, put him in the car and get out of here’. I did my best to flag down another car, but about five or six drove past and no one stopped. I finally jumped right in front of one and asked the driver to call an ambulance and the police, and that gentleman called them,” Gujda told news server Romea.cz.

“We didn’t go there to steal. We are known to people in the neighborhood, they know we drive there to collect iron. We always knock on their doors and ask if we can haul away any old iron for them or if they have any to sell,” Gujda said.

A women who lives next door to the shooter claims that the man was afraid. He heard that someone was digging around on his property, and because he had been robbed twice before, he took his crossbow and went to take a look outside. “Three men were standing across from him and he told them to go away. He said he had been aiming at the feet and that it was an unfortunate accident that the crossbow shot the arrow into the head,” news server Blesk.cz has quoted the neighbor as saying.

After deposing those involved, police officers refused to classify the shooter’s action as self-defense and charged him with grievous bodily harm. Now it is very likely that the classification will be expanded to grievous bodily harm resulting in a fatality, for which he faces up to 16 years in prison.

Residents of Chotěbuz are unequivocally on the side of the shooter. “Thieves have been annoying us here for quite some time and he was just defending his property. Our guys are already writing up a petition in his defense, we don’t agree with him ending up in prison,” news server iDNES.cz quotes resident Martina Vařílková as saying.