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CRIME

Danish teens set off school shooting scare

A concerned resident contacted police on Wednesday about what they thought was a potential shooting incident at Copenhagen Business School.

Published: 22 July 2015 13:25 CEST
Danish teens set off school shooting scare
A concerned resident was worried about a potential shooting at Copenhagen Business School. Photo: CBS
Copenhagen Police on Wednesday responded to a report of a mysterious individual seen dressed in military garb and holding a weapon at the Frederiksberg Metro station near Copenhagen Business School. 
 
“According to the informant, it was a roughly 20-year-old man in a camouflage jacket who was wearing a mask and had a military rifle with a telescopic sight,” police spokesman Henrik Stormer told news agency Ritzau. 
 
When police arrived on the scene however they thankfully found that it was an advanced toy gun.  
 
“It turned out to be two 13-year-old boys who were playing a hardball weapon,” Stormer said, referring to an advanced type of air rifle that looks similar to a real weapon but shoots small plastic bullets. 
 
Although the situation wasn’t as dangerous as first believed, the two boys may still face legal repercussions as it is illegal for anyone under the age of 18 to own that type of toy gun.
 
Stormer said the boys were taken to their homes and police will now consider whether or not to pursue illegal possession charges. 
 
In the YouTube video shown below, Danish kids are shown playing with guns similar to the one from Wednesday's incident. 

CRIME

Danish government backs removing children from gang-connected families

Denmark’s government wants authorities to be able to move children out of families in which parents are gang members and is likely to formalise the measure in parliament.

Published: 9 April 2024 13:38 CEST
Danish government backs removing children from gang-connected families

The justice spokesperson with senior coalition partner the Social Democrats, Bjørn Brandenborg, told regional media TV2 Fyn that he wants authorities to have the power to remove children from their families in certain circumstances where the parents are gang members.

Brandenborg’s comments came on Monday, after Odense Municipality said it had spent 226 million kroner since 2009 on social services for eight specific families with gang connections.

“There is simply a need for us to give the authorities full backing and power to forcibly remove children early so we break the food chain and the children don’t become part of gang circles,” he said.

The measure will be voted on in parliament “within a few weeks”, he said.

An earlier agreement on anti-gang crime measures, which was announced by the government last November, includes provisions for measures of this nature, Brandenborg later confirmed to newswire Ritzau.

“Information [confirming] that close family members of a child or young person have been convicted for gang crime must be included as a significant and element in the municipality’s assessment” of whether an intervention is justified, the agreement states according to Ritzau.

The relevant part of November’s political agreement is expected to be voted on in parliament this month.

READ ALSO: Denmark cracks down on gang crime with extensive new agreement

Last year, Justice Minister Peter Hummelgaard told political media Altinget that family relations to a gang member could be a parameter used by authorities when assessing whether a child should be forcibly removed from parents.

In the May 2023 interview, Hummelgaard called the measure a “hard and far-reaching measure”.

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