The shooting of a TV Nova editor in Karlovo náměstí has focused an unflattering spotlight on the Prague police department and its ability to keep violent criminals off of city streets. It has also touched off a debate over responsibility: In a country where random acts of violence traditionally have been rare, who do people turn to for protection — those paid to enforce the law or one another?

Authorities continue a nationwide hunt for David Lubina, 31, of Hostouň, west Bohemia, the man they say repeatedly shot Michal Velíšek when he came to the aid of a woman that Lubina was allegedly threatening with a handgun late in the afternoon Sept. 13.

"The fact that Michal Velíšek succumbed to his wounds and died in such a tragic and innocent way is sad and totally devastating news for Nova," said Veronika Šmítková, spokeswoman for the broadcaster. "It is even more sad because the man who was shot dead behaved in a way that every one of us should."

But police caution against just such involvement. While they promise to catch Lubina quickly — at press time he remained at large — authorities also urge the public to let them do their job: They say that Lubina remains armed and extremely dangerous and that under no circumstances should members of the public attempt to apprehend him themselves.

Lubina known to police

Police have repeatedly failed to keep Lubina off the streets, despite their descriptions of him as a convicted criminal, a recidivist and a drug addict who has spent time in mental institutions and has a history of aggression, including an eight-and-a-half-year prison sentence for armed robbery.

In the last three months, they have arrested Lubina twice for making threats with a gun before releasing him from custody, according to published reports. In both cases members of the public intervened to disarm him before police arrived.

The first arrest occurred in June, when police apprehended Lubina after he threatened passengers on a bus. They transferred him to Prague's Bohnice psychiatric clinic, which released him a few days later.

Then Sept. 8, as reported in the local media, Lubina threatened more riders on that same bus with a compressed air gun. Passengers again tackled and disarmed him, and police again arrested and released him.

Five days later, Velíšek, who edited segments of the TV Nova's evening news and variety programs, was shot to death at the park where he was pushing his infant daughter in a pram in central Prague.

Rushing to help

At about 4:30 p.m. on a busy Tuesday afternoon last week, police say Lubina approached a young woman in the park, made obscene proposals to her and threatened her with a gun. The woman shouted for help.

When Velíšek, 32, and another man approached them, Lubina allegedly shot Velíšek in the arm without warning. After Velíšek fell, Lubina emptied several more rounds into his midsection, tearing through his stomach, liver and kidneys, authorities said. Velíšek died shortly thereafter at the surgical ward of a nearby hospital.

"The perpetrator continued the shooting and fired several shots into the wounded and helpless man," said Prague Police spokeswoman Iva Knolová.

Police said they identified Lubina from security cameras that keep the square's park and tram stops under surveillance, as well as from a camera-phone picture taken by a woman in another park whom Lubina had allegedly accosted earlier that day.

A number of people came forward and identified Lubina after police circulated the mobile-phone photo.

Afterward, authorities said, Lubina fled to the Dejvická bus station, where he threatened other women, and eventually returned to Hostouň, a few kilometers outside Prague.

His girlfriend, who identified herself only as Blanka, said she mentioned to Lubina her shock at the Karlovo náměstí murder she had heard about on the news. She said Lubina replied simply: "It's better not to get involved in anything these days."

Calls for cowardice?

Following the shooting, police psychologist Ludmila Čírtková issued a statement widely reported in the Czech press that cautioned witnesses to crimes against "pretending to be heroes." Instead, she said, civilians should allow police to handle public safety matters.

But Martin Věchet of Mladá fronta Dnes took issue with Čírtková's characterization of Velíšek's conduct (See Opinion, A4), arguing that such advice "calls for cowardice to become an acceptable norm of behavior," a throwback to the days of communism, when avoiding responsibility was generally considered the wisest course of action.

Czech Human Rights Commissioner Svatopluk Karásek echoed that view, calling on Czech President Václav Klaus, currently touring abroad, to officially decorate Velíšek with a state order in memoriam upon his return.

"He came to help her in public and by this showed exceptional human solidarity and responsibility," said Karásek, a deputy for the junior government Freedom Union-DEU. "He has become a model for the behavior of other citizens."

TV Nova has offered a 100,000 Kč award for information leading to the assailant's capture.