The alleged perpetrator of the attack late Sunday afternoon “is known to have a psychiatric history,” Copenhagen Police Chief Inspector Søren Thomassen said.
The attack, committed with a rifle, left three dead and four seriously injured in a large shopping center, Fields, located between downtown Copenhagen and the airport.
The identities of the three people killed — a 47-year-old man, a 17-year-old boy and another 17-year-old girl — as well as the injured of different ages and genders suggest “that they are victims chosen at random,” explained the senior police officer.
“Nothing indicates in what we found that it was a terrorist act,” said the director of the investigation, according to whom he acted alone during the attack.
The police confirmed Monday morning that they consider authentic videos of the suspect circulating since Sunday evening on social networks.
The 22-year-old – whose identity is known but not made public by the Danish media – appears there posing with weapons, mimicking 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 are still circulating on other accounts. According to Danish media, they were posted on the suspect’s accounts on Friday.
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 carried a rifle, a pistol and a knife, according to the Danish police. The suspect did not have a license to possess these weapons.
The arrest was made without difficulty around 5:50 p.m. (3:50 p.m. GMT) near the shopping center about a quarter of an hour after the first reports of gunshots, according to the police.
The suspect was interviewed and admitted to being at the scene during the shooting, according to the police, who carried out a series of searches during the night.
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.
The Danish Prime Minister castigated a “cruel” attack overnight, as Denmark emerged from three days of popular celebration with the unprecedented passage of the Tour de France.
“Our beautiful, usually safe capital was changed in the space of a second,” Mette Frederiksen said in a statement.
The area around the mall was quiet Monday morning.
Only in front of the main entrance, journalists were present, behind a security cordon watched by many policemen. A team of investigators of about fifteen people entered the building around 08:30 (06:30 GMT).
Several people were also slightly injured in the panic caused by the shooting in the mall.
The latter was very popular due to a concert, with 13,500 spectators, of the British star Harry Styles planned in a large neighboring hall, 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.
