Copenhagen shooting: police say no indication of terrorism motive
A shooting at a Copenhagen shopping centre in which three people were killed and four others seriously wounded was not terror-related, Danish police have said.
Søren Thomassen, Copenhagen’s chief police inspector, said the gunman, a 22-year-old Danish man who confessed to the shooting on Sunday night, had apparently picked his victims at random when he opened fire at the Field’s shopping centre on Sunday afternoon.
The dead include a 17-year-old boy, a 17-year-old girl, and a 47-year-old Russian man who lived in Denmark.
At least four people were injured in the attack, including a 19-year-old and a 40-year-old from Denmark, as well as a 50-year-old and a 16-year-old, from Sweden.
The head doctor of Copenhagen’s university clinic Rigshospitalet, Casper Claudius, said on Monday that three of the injured were out of danger but remained in a critical condition.
Thomassen said the criminal investigation into the shootings had so far produced “no evidence” that the gunman, who has yet to be identified, had been motivated by terrorism.
Thomassen would not be drawn on reports suggesting there may have been a racist motive. Witness accounts and film shot by an onlooker indicated he had fired randomly on his victims and had been acting alone. “But until we’re absolutely certain that this hypothesis is correct we will carry out extensive investigations and maintain a massive operative presence in Copenhagen until we can be certain that he was acting alone,” the police chief added.
The man was arrested by police in the shopping centre, and was found to be in possession of a rifle and a knife. He had also had access to a pistol, but had no legal right to possess the weapon, Thomassen said.
He is known to have had treatment for a psychiatric condition and was known to police but “not very well known”, Thomassen added.
Scenes from the shooting, in the district of Ørestad in the south of Copenhagen, which is located between the city centre and the airport, showed people in panic as they tried to flee the shooting. Police were called to the scene at about 5.35pm local time and managed to overpower the gunman about 13 minutes later.
Within a short time 31 ambulances were at the scene.
Pictures in Danish media showed the man, dressed in a sleeveless black vest, his head bowed, being led away by police.
Thomassen said investigators had worked through the night. During questioning, the man had confessed to the shooting, and was expected to be brought before a judge on Monday and charged with murder.
There were unconfirmed reports in the Danish daily newspaper Ekstra Bladet that the man was a member of a rifle club, which had enabled him to access weapons and ammunition. Police refused to comment on the reports.
Denmark’s justice minister, Mattias Tesfaye, said it was too early to pin down any motive. “We don’t know the motive yet, but I can assure you that the authorities are doing everything they can in order to clear up this case and to ensure that those responsible can be criminally prosecuted,” he told the news agency Ritzau.
Mahdi al-Wazni, who filmed the attacks on his mobile phone, told the Danish daily Jyllands-Posten, that he had spotted the gunman after he had gone searching for his two-year-old daughter. The film shows the man shooting in front of shops.
Al-Wazni said: “He was wearing hunting gear: three-quarter length trousers and a black vest. He was wearing a reversed cap. He could see that I was filming him.” He said the man had laughed and said the shots were not real. “Perhaps he wanted to trick me to go a bit closer to him,” al-Wazni added. “He was shooting and smashing panes of glass. I think he shot about five to six times, but I didn’t see him hitting anyone.”
Emilie Jeppesen, 20, another witness, told Jyllands-Posten how she and a friend in a restaurant had heard gunshots. “We had no idea what had happened. Suddenly chaos broke out everywhere,” she said.
Her friend, Astrid Kofoed Jørgensen, said: “Everyone in the restaurant was sent into the kitchen, and from there we could hear three or four shots.”
One witness told the Danish broadcaster DR, that he had been with his family in a clothes shop when he heard “three, four bangs … really loud bangs. It sounded like the shots had been fired right next to the shop.”
A female witness told the channel, TV 2: “I was standing with my girlfriend on the uppermost floor and could see how people were suddenly going towards the exit. Then we heard a bang and we also ran out.”
Denmark’s prime minister, Mette Frederiksen, condemned the shooting as a “horrific attack”, calling on people to look after each other.
Denmark’s royal family expressed its sympathy for the victims and their relatives. It called on the nation to show solidarity. “The situation demands unity and care,” leading members said in a statement.”
The shooting took place days after an attack on a gay bar in Oslo, Norway, in which two people were killed and 21 others were injured that Norway’s secret service identified as an Islamist terror attack.