The 22-year-old Dane, who on Sunday afternoon opened fire on shoppers at the Field’s shopping mall, a few kilometers south of central Copenhagen, was arrested and charged with manslaughter and attempted murder. He will be held in a closed psychiatric ward, authorities said. Sign up now for FREE unlimited access to Reuters.com Register The incident shocked 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 attacker, whose name is subject to a publication ban, shot and killed two 17-year-olds, a male and a female, and a 47-year-old Russian national living in Denmark. Four other people were also injured by gunshots. Three of them were now stable and one remained in critical condition, a health official from the Danish emergency medical services said. The injured include two Swedish citizens, a 50-year-old man and a 16-year-old woman. The incident could not be considered a “terrorist act” based on current evidence, Chief Police Inspector Søren Thomassen told reporters earlier on Monday, adding that there was no indication that the suspect had acted with others. “There was some kind of discussion and preparation (by the suspect) leading up to this terrible event,” Thomassen told a news conference without elaborating on the attacker’s possible motives. “Our current assessment is that these are accidental victims.” Several people were slightly injured as they fled the scene, but not from gunfire. The attack occurred as many young people had gathered at the mall ahead of a concert by British singer Harry Styles in Copenhagen on Sunday afternoon near the mall. The concert was cancelled. read more “I am devastated along with the people of Copenhagen. I love this city. The people are so warm and full of love. I am devastated for the victims, their families and everyone who is hurting,” Styles wrote on Twitter. “I’m sorry we couldn’t be together. Please take care of each other.” The suspect, who police said was known to psychiatrists in Denmark, was in possession of a rifle, ammunition and a knife when he was arrested. Denmark’s gun laws are strict and all guns, with the exception of some shotguns, require a license issued by the police. The type of weapons the suspect used were legal, police said, but the shooter did not have a license to use them. Denmark’s largest cinema company Nordisk Film, which has space in the Field shopping centre, said it had decided to close its theaters across the country on Monday due to filming. Copenhagen police will issue a new update on the ongoing investigation at 16:00 local time (15:00 GMT). Sign up now for FREE unlimited access to Reuters.com Register Reporting by Stine Jacobsen and Nikolaj Skydsgaard, editing by Anna Ringstrom and Ed Osmond Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.
