The 2009 Pécs University Shooting

The shooting

On November 26, 2009, students were attending a practical session at the University of Pécs when 23-year-old pharmacy student Ákos Gere returned to the classroom with a handgun and began firing. Miklós Dékány, a 19-year-old first-year pharmacy student from Kaposvár, was killed.

A second 19-year-old student was critically wounded. A laboratory worker and a cleaner were also seriously injured. The event unfolded within an academic building rather than a public street, making the attack especially disruptive for students, staff and the wider university community.

Immediate arrest

After the shooting, Gere left the immediate classroom area and went to a nearby university clinical building. Contemporary reporting states that he contacted police and told them what he had done and where he was. Officers arrested him there and recovered the handgun, magazines and ammunition.

The firearm was legally held for sporting purposes. Gere had joined a shooting club before the attack and had received a permit for a sporting handgun. That fact became part of public discussion about firearm access, but the criminal trial focused on his conduct, intent and responsibility for the shooting itself.

What investigators could and could not establish

Early reporting described tensions with classmates and noted that Gere had previously received psychological care. Accounts also mentioned an academic dispute shortly before the shooting. None of those details should be treated as a complete judicially proven motive.

He initially declined to give a detailed account to investigators. The criminal case therefore depended on witness evidence, physical evidence, expert assessments and the circumstances of the attack rather than a single definitive explanation from the offender.

First-instance judgment

On January 25, 2012, the court in Pécs imposed life imprisonment. Hungarian reporting described the judgment as involving premeditated attempted homicide against multiple people, alongside additional offences connected with the serious injuries caused during the attack. Under the sentence, Gere could first become eligible for conditional release after 30 years.

The defense appealed, so that January ruling was not yet final. The appellate court subsequently reviewed both the legal characterization and the sentence.

Final appellate decision

On June 5, 2012, the Pécs Court of Appeal upheld the life sentence. The decision became final. Reporting on the judgment states that the court found Gere guilty in connection with the killing of one student and the shooting of three other people and preserved the earliest parole possibility at 30 years.

The final decision is the basis for this archive's classification. The case is not labeled solved merely because Gere was arrested at the scene; it is labeled solved because the criminal proceedings reached a final judgment.

The victims and the university community

Dékány had planned to continue his family's pharmacy profession. The university suspended teaching for affected students and offered psychological support after the shooting. Vigils and memorial observances followed in Pécs and Kaposvár.

The surviving victims are not reduced here to injuries alone. One student underwent extensive treatment after being shot, while the other wounded people also required medical care. The legal case centered on Gere, but the lasting impact extended to classmates, staff, families and the broader university community.

Timeline

Current status

The case is classified Solved / Adjudicated. Ákos Gere's final life sentence was confirmed in 2012. This page does not present disputed explanations about grievance, psychiatric history or peer conflict as a single proven motive, and it does not use those issues to diminish responsibility for the attack.

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