Speaking to ERT, he initially said that “there was information that the suspect would be moving in the city of Patras and might try to flee to Italy.”

“We received a call from a hotel where a man had requested accommodation, and we were told he matched the description of the suspect. After verifying that it was indeed the man we were looking for, I entered in plain clothes pretending to be a customer,” Tsitsikas explained.

“As we had been informed he was in the lobby, I asked for a room, but they told me there were none available. So I asked for a coffee to buy time. However, after looking around, I couldn’t spot him, so I revealed my identity to the hotel staff, who told me he was on the mezzanine level.”

“Considering the hotel was full of students and other guests, we decided it was safer not to change levels and to wait in the lobby, where we had better visibility,” he continued, describing the operation.

“Instead of moving upstairs, we remained patient, as we believed it was better for him to come down to the lobby, where we had a clearer view. We had five injured people and did not know his mental state. Someone with nothing to lose could do anything.”

Describing the moment of arrest, the officer said: “When he came down from the mezzanine, he spoke with an employee, turned his back to me, and that’s when I had the opportunity to immobilize him. I identified myself as a police officer, and at that moment he was cooperative and told me, ‘now all the TV channels will show me.’”

“What surprised us was that during the body search he had a shoulder holster like those used by police officers, with a loaded .38 revolver, and additional bullets in his pocket. This showed someone highly familiar with weapons, despite his age.”

He added that when the man entered the lobby, “he was wearing a trench coat with his hands in his pockets, and we couldn’t see what he had inside, raising concerns about a possible discharge inside a crowded hotel.”

Despite the arrest, Tsitsikas concluded, “he remained calm, muttered some complaints about pension issues, and was immediately transferred to police headquarters (GADA).”

His daughter describes their relationship

Speaking to ANT1, his daughter said that he was not really a father figure, but simply “the man who brought her into the world.” Responding to criticism that she did nothing to prevent the incident, she said they had no real relationship and that she had not seen him since 2022, as “there was no communication at all.”

She also recalled that he had once asked her to return to Greece with her child so they could live together and he could leave them his assets, but she refused, saying: “My child is not for sale.”

She further mentioned an incident where her daughter visited him and he showed her a gun, though she could not tell whether it was real.

Describing him, she said he was “demanding—he expected respect and love without having earned them,” adding that she had repeatedly told him that such things must be earned.

Regarding his mental state, she said he spoke about “demons,” claiming they tied him up, beat him, and prevented him from breathing at night.

She also recounted bizarre claims he made in the past, including saying that “devils stopped him” from attending her child’s baptism, and that “myrrh-bearing women” visited her daughter in her sleep to bring good luck.

Finally, she said he had long expressed violent thoughts: “He would often say, ‘I’ve been to that court, I send them letters—I’ll take a gun and go kill them.’”