Assassination of Jerzy Popiełuszko

Assassination of Jerzy Popiełuszko
Assassination of Jerzy Popiełuszko
Part of the persecution of Catholics in Polish People's Republic
	Top and second row:; Photos of Father Jerzy's ; funeral service held at St. Stanislaus; Kostka Church.; ; Third row:; John R. Davis Jr. was attending mass; during the first anniversary of Father; Jerzy's assassination, October 1985. ; ; Bottom row, left to right:; A memorial on the dam ; in Włocławek commemorating; the assassination of ; Father Jerzy; ; the panoramic photo of Father Jerzy's ; cross monument in Włocławek;; and the cross commemorating ; the assassination of Father Jerzy in Górsk;
Location	In the village of Górsk, Poland (kidnapping and assault); Vistula River, Włocławek, Poland (disposal and discovery)
Date	19 October 1984 ; approx. 10 p.m. (CET; UTC+01:00)
Target	Jerzy Popiełuszko
Attack type	Beating, strangulation, and possibly drowning
Weapon	Batons and a rope
Deaths	1 (Father Jerzy)
Injured	1 (Chrostowski)
Victims	Father Jerzy and Waldemar Chrostowski
Perpetrators	Grzegorz Piotrowski, Leszek Pękala, Waldemar Chmielewski, and Adam Pietruszka
Charges	Five charges: ; abduction; ; aiding and abetting; ; torture; ; homicide; ; abuse of power;

On the night of 19 October 1984, 37-year-old Polish Catholic priest Jerzy Popiełuszko was brutally attacked, kidnapped, and killed by three agents of the Polish Security Service, the communist counterintelligence agency in Polish People's Republic, who were disguised as traffic police.

The perpetrators who were responsible for and involved in the death of Father Jerzy were Grzegorz Piotrowski, Leszek Pękala, and Waldemar Chmielewski, along with Adam Pietruszka aiding and abetting it although he was not involved in the assassination. One of the perpetrators, Piotrowski, who was the ringleader of the crime, confessed that he hit Father Jerzy with baton repeatedly and was sentenced to 25 years in prison.

Father Jerzy's funeral was held on 3 November 1984. A multitude of 600,000 to 1 million people, including Lech Wałęsa, attended his funeral to pay respects for his death.

The assassination was one of a major incident in the Soviet-led Poland that had sparked outrage and became a progressive cause of the communist regime's collapse, and it also remains one of the notorious crimes, along with the murder of Grzegorz Przemyk.