Tourist killed in nightclub attack
Police arrest man in slaying of Norwegian assaulted in Old Town
(July 17, 2003)
By Dinah A. Spritzer
Staff Writer, The Prague Post
A Norwegian tourist died July 14 after being kicked in the head two days earlier at Legends bar in Old Town. Police have arrested a suspect in the attack. Ola Lund, 27, was dancing with two friends Saturday, July 12, at 2:20 a.m. when he was attacked by a muscular male, said witnesses.
“I was looking towards the exit where Ola was standing and I saw a man give what looked like a martial-arts kick,” said Gail Whitmore, who was at the bar that evening but did not know the victim. “The kicking guy – he looked really tough – then jumped back and assumed a fighting stance for about 40 seconds.” Lund, bleeding, fell to the floor and his attacker ran out of the bar. The assailant was wearing a T-shirt with a newsprint pattern, according to witnesses and police.
“It took 15 minutes for the ambulance to come. They did the best they could but he had stopped breathing for a while, so we knew it didn’t look good,” said Whitmore, an opera singer from New York who has lived in Prague for a year. Lund was pronounced dead at Motol Hospital in Prague 5, said the Norwegian Embassy. The suspect, whose name was not released, was arrested several hours after the attack and was being held at a police station. If convicted, the 28-year-old Prague resident from the former Yugoslavia faces five year to 12 years in prison, police said. He was a regular customer of the bar, said witnesses. Witnesses told investigators the incident had been fueled by alcohol, a police spokeswoman said. “We were also told that the victim might have been rude to the assailant’s girlfriend,” said Iva Knolova of the police department. Whitmore and two other witnesses interviewed for this article disputed that account. “There are at least seven people who saw what happened and they all say that the Norwegian was just dancing and the attack was totally unprovoked. This big guy was just looking for a fight,” said Whitmore.
A 25-year-old woman who was also present at the bar said bartenders told her that the assailant was a frequent visitor who would pick a fight with anyone who looked at him the wrong way.
At the time of the attack, a karaoke night had just ended and dozens of participants were still in the bar, Whitmore said. The event organizers posted a note on the Karaokeaddicts.com Web site urging witnesses to come forward with information. Lasse Seim, the Norwegian ambassador in Prague, said Lund’s parents flew to Prague after learning of the attack on their son. Lund is survived by a brother and sister. He is from Skjaak, a small town in eastern Norway, and worked at a winter sports center, said Seim. Whitmore said she spent several hours comforting the victims’ friends. “They were so distraught,” she said. “They had all been friends since Ola was 1 year old.”