COPENHAGEN, July 4 (Reuters) – The man behind a shooting at a Copenhagen shopping mall that left three dead and several injured was jailed for 24 days on Monday after being questioned by a city court, a city court said. announced the Danish police.
The 22-year-old Danish man, who opened fire on customers at Field’s shopping mall a few miles south of Copenhagen city center on Sunday afternoon, has been arrested and charged with manslaughter and intent to kill.
He will be kept 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 enthusiastic Danes took to the streets across the country .
The shooter, whose name is subject to a publication ban, shot and killed two 17-year-olds, a man and a woman, and a 47-year-old Russian citizen living in Denmark. Four other people were also injured by bullets.
Three of them were now stable and one remained in critical condition, a Danish Emergency Medical Services health official said.
Among the injured were two Swedish citizens, a 50-year-old man and a 16-year-old woman.
The incident could not be considered an “act of terror” based on the current evidence, Chief Police Inspector Soren Thomassen told reporters earlier Monday, adding that there was no indication the suspect had acted with others.
“There was a kind of deliberation and preparation (by the suspect) up to this terrible event,” Thomassen told a news conference without providing details about the perpetrator’s possible motives.
“Our current assessment is that these are random victims.”
Several people were slightly injured while fleeing the scene, but not by bullets.
The attack came as many young people had flocked to the mall ahead of a concert due to be given by British singer Harry Styles in Copenhagen on Sunday evening not far from the mall. The concert has been cancelled. Read more
“I am heartbroken 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 all who are suffering,” Styles wrote on Twitter.
“I’m sorry we couldn’t be together. Please take care of each other.”
The suspect, who police say 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, except some shotguns, require a license issued by the police. The type of weapons 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 centre, said it had decided to close its cinemas across the country on Monday due to the shooting.
Copenhagen Police will hold another press conference on the ongoing investigation at 4 p.m. local time (1500 GMT).
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(Reporting by Stine Jacobsen and Nikolaj Skydsgaard, editing by Anna Ringstrom and Ed Osmond)
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