COPENHAGEN, July 4 (Reuters) – The man behind a shooting at a Copenhagen shopping center that killed three people and injured several was sentenced to 24 days in prison on Monday after being preliminarily questioned in a city court, the newspaper said Danish police with.
The 22-year-old Dane who opened fire on shoppers at Field’s shopping center, a few kilometers south of downtown Copenhagen on Sunday afternoon, has been arrested and charged with manslaughter and intent to kill.
He will remain in custody in a closed psychiatric ward, authorities said.
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The incident rocked Denmark at the end of a week in which it hosted the first three stages of the Tour de France cycling race and hundreds of thousands of cheering Danes took to the streets across the country.
The shooter, whose name is banned from publication, shot dead two 17-year-olds, a man and a woman, and a 47-year-old Russian national living in Denmark. Four other people were also injured by gunfire.
Three of them are now stable and one is in critical condition, a health official with the Danish Ambulance Service said.
Among the wounded were two Swedish nationals, a 50-year-old man and a 16-year-old woman.
The incident could not be considered an “act of terrorism” based on the current evidence, Chief Police Inspector Soren Thomassen told reporters on Monday, adding there was no indication the suspect acted in concert with others.
“There was some kind of consideration and preparation (by the suspect) up until this terrible event,” Thomassen said at a press conference, without giving details of the perpetrator’s possible motives.
“Our current assessment is that these are accidental victims.”
Several people were slightly injured while fleeing the scene, but not from gunfire.
The attack happened as many young people poured into the mall ahead of a concert that British singer Harry Styles was scheduled to give in Copenhagen not far from the mall on Sunday night. The concert has been cancelled. Continue reading
“I am heartbroken along with the people of Copenhagen. I adore this city. People are so warm and full of love. I am devastated for the victims, their families and anyone who is being hurt,” Styles wrote on Twitter.
“I’m sorry we couldn’t be together.
The suspect, who police said was known to psychiatrists in Denmark, was in possession of a gun, ammunition and a knife when he was arrested.
Danish gun laws are strict and all guns, with the exception of some hunting rifles, require a license issued by the police. The type of guns used by the suspect were legal, police said, but the shooter did not have a license to use them.
Denmark’s largest cinema operator Nordisk Film, which has a venue in the Field shopping center, said it had decided to close its cinemas across the country on Monday for filming.
Copenhagen Police will hold another press conference at 16:00 local time (15:00 GMT) on the ongoing investigation.
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Reporting by Stine Jacobsen and Nikolaj Skydsgaard, editing by Anna Ringstrom and Ed Osmond
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