(LifeSiteNews) — New details are emerging about the 31-year-old Ukrainian who stabbed five people at a Benedictine abbey in Poland yesterday, killing one.
Ihor M., who was swiftly taken into police custody, has now been declared unfit for trial. According to Polish Catholic outlet Polonia Christiana, the public prosecutor’s office will not be proceeding against him “in the near future.”
The District Public Prosecutor’s office in Przemyśł, a city 13 miles from Jarosław Abbey, the scene of yesterday’s violence, announced today that it had been advised by psychiatrists that Ihor M. is severely mentally ill.
“We have already received the opinions of expert psychiatrists, and the psychiatrists have concluded that, in his current state of mental health, Ihor M. exhibits symptoms of mental illness in the form of acute, multifaceted psychotic disorders,” it stated.
READ: Priest dies in knife attack at Benedictine convent
According to Polish media, the killer traveled to Poland from Germany, intending to cross the border into his native Ukraine. However, he was stopped at the Polish border town of Korczowa because he was found to be without valid car insurance. His car was towed to Jarosław, 23 miles west, and Ihor M. followed. Upon arrival, he went to Jarosław Abbey, the home of a community of Benedictine nuns. When he entered an off-limits kitchen to ask for a glass of water, Ihor M. was asked by a priest to leave. The intruder then took a knife from the kitchen and began to attack people at random, including three priests, a laywoman, and a layman. One priest, Fr. Stanisław Zbojnowicz, died.
In the confusion after yesterday morning’s violence, Church officials in Rzeszów incorrectly announced that two priests had died. They have since apologized.
There are unofficial reports in the Polish press that Ihor M. is a veteran of the war between Russia and Ukraine and served his country on the frontlines. He is reportedly under police supervision in a hospital.
Updated.