[8] While in prison, Wilmont was reportedly diagnosed with paranoid schizophrenia and was sent to therapy and also provided medication—once his mental health did not show signs of improving, he was given ambulatory care.

[3] Shortly before the end of his sentence on 30 September 2018, Stefan Wilmont's mother reported to the police that her son's mental state was bad and that he had been harmed by the judge's decision to send him to prison.

[11][12] During the evening, Mayor of Gdańsk Paweł Adamowicz came onstage and gave a speech in which he thanked the supporters of the Great Orchestra.

[13] At 8:00 p.m., while the people onstage were counting down to a sparkler show called the "Little Light To the Sky" (Polish: Światełko do nieba), Wilmont ran up to Adamowicz and stabbed him three times with a knife.

[20] After undergoing a five-hour-long operation, Adamowicz survived the surgery, but required artificial ventilation devices to stay alive.

[25] Around the same time, mayor of Warsaw Rafał Trzaskowski declared a period of mourning in the capital as well—large parties were cancelled and flags located on government buildings were lowered to half-mast.

[26] Multiple other cities were involved in events mourning the loss of Adamowicz, including Sosnowiec,[27] Sopot[28] and Poznań.

First of all, that Jerzy Owsiak, despite these tragic events, remains the chair of the Great Orchestra of Christmas Charity.

From this comes the family's request to not bring flowers and grave lanterns to his Saturday funeral, but to donate to and support the organizations that were close to [my] husband.

That is my will and I know that it would be my husband's.The murder of Paweł Adamowicz, due to the rash comments made by the attacker against the Civic Platform, sparked a debate in Polish media regarding the increasing aggression which could be seen in political discourse and also about hate speech, especially in the context of the threats and insults towards Adamowicz in the past months and the insufficient reaction of government institutions to such happenings.

[40] Polish public TV broadcaster Telewizja Polska (TVP) had fiercely criticized Paweł Adamowicz since the Law and Justice party came to power in Poland in 2015.

[46] Also in January 2019, musician Krzysztof Skiba publicly held Jacek Kurski, then chairman of Telewizja Polska, morally accountable for the murder of Paweł Adamowicz, saying in a Polsat News interview that "the media openly slandered the mayor of Gdańsk and we now suffer the consequences".