(Copenhagen) In a battered Denmark, the investigation into the killing in a Copenhagen shopping center focused on Monday on the mental state of the 22-year-old suspect, who published videos before the attack where he pretended to commit suicide with his weapons.
Posted at 6:40 a.m.
Updated at 8:43 a.m.
The alleged perpetrator of the attack, committed late Sunday afternoon, was brought before a judge Monday midday at the Copenhagen court. Dressed in a blue T-shirt, he listened to the reading of the indictment for murders, before the hearing continued behind closed doors to decide on his detention.
“He is known to have a psychiatric history,” Copenhagen Police Chief Inspector Søren Thomassen said Monday morning.
According to the national radio and television DR, citing several anonymous sources, the alleged shooter tried to join a psychological help line shortly before the events, which the authorities did not want to confirm.
The attack, committed with a rifle, killed three people and injured 30, four of them seriously, in a large shopping center, Fields, located between downtown Copenhagen and the airport.
The drama shattered a festive weekend in the Scandinavian country, between the jubilation of the Tour de France and the return of the giant Roskilde festival after two years of cancellations due to COVID-19.
“I believe that we have rarely experienced such a violent contrast as yesterday,” admitted Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen, who came to pay tribute to the victims at the scene Monday noon.
“Naturally very justified discussions will emerge […] in connection with the weapons used, in connection with psychiatry […] But today I find that we must pay tribute to the victims, show our sympathy, our help and our support, and support all those who have been affected, ”she said in front of the cameras.
The identities of the three people killed – a 47-year-old man, a 17-year-old boy and a 17-year-old girl – as well as the injured of different ages and genders suggest “these are randomly selected victims”, a explained Søren Thomassen.
“Nothing indicates in what we found that it was a terrorist act,” said the director of the investigation, according to which the shooter acted alone.
The police confirmed Monday morning that they consider authentic videos of the suspect circulating since Sunday evening on social networks.
The 22-year-old young man – whose identity is known, but not made public – appears there posing with weapons, miming suicide gestures with a rifle and a pistol.
He also mentions a treatment with a powerful drug prescribed in psychiatry “which does not work”.
The suspect’s YouTube and Instagram accounts were deactivated overnight, but the videos, posted Friday according to Danish media, are still circulating on other accounts.
Police say it’s too early to say the motive for the attack, but it seems to have been prepared in advance.
Four seriously injured
During the attack, the assailant was carrying a rifle, a pistol and a knife, according to Danish police and footage from witnesses. Weapons he didn’t have a license for.
The arrest was made without difficulty around 5:50 p.m. (3:50 p.m. GMT) outside the shopping center about a quarter of an hour after the first reports of gunshots, according to the police.
The four who were shot and injured are still “in serious condition”. They are two Danish women aged 19 and 40 and two Swedes, a 50-year-old man and a 16-year-old girl.
Twenty-three people were also slightly injured in the panic caused by the shooting in the mall, police said Monday.
The surroundings of the shopping center, still closed, were calm Monday morning, according to an AFP journalist on the spot. A team of investigators of about 15 entered the building around 8:30 a.m. (2:30 a.m. EDT).
The latter was very popular due to a concert, with 13,500 spectators, of the British star Harry Styles scheduled in a large venue nearby, the Royal Arena. The show was canceled at the last minute.
“I am heartbroken with the people of Copenhagen. I love this city. The people there are so warm and full of love,” the singer said on Twitter.