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CRIME

Shootings in Aarhus mar holiday weekend as gang violence escalates

No injuries were reported during the latest shooting in Aarhus’ western neighbourhood of Brabrand, the latest in in a series of gang-related incidents over the public holiday weekend.

Published: 6 June 2017 16:53 CEST
Shootings in Aarhus mar holiday weekend as gang violence escalates
The City Vest shopping centre in Brabrand, Aarhus. File photo: Chran/Wikimedia Commons

The neighbourhood, which has been plagued by organised crime-related violence in recent weeks, was subjected to its latest shooting incident Monday, reports news agency Ritzau.

Several shots were fired in the parking lot of the City Vest shopping centre at around 1:30am Monday, according to an East Jutland Police report.

The individuals that who fired the shots were no longer at the scene when police arrived, but examination of the area showed two cars to have been hit by bullets, says the report.

East Jutland Police have made as many as 100 arrests in recent weeks in an attempt to quell a simmering gang-related conflict in the neighbourhood, reports Ritzau.

The conflict is reportedly linked to attempts by Copenhagen-based gang ‘Loyal to Familia’ to establish itself in the Jutland town.

READ ALSO: Denmark government grants gun amnesty in bid to reduce firearms

Police in Aarhus arrested six people connected to organised crime Saturday – but this was not enough to stop shootings.

At around 8pm Saturday, police received reports of two groups exchanging fire near the Bispehavevej area.

Two men were subsequently arrested and charged with aggravated assault and attempted murder, and were remanded in custody for four weeks. Police have since arrested a 25-year-old man, who attended preliminary hearings Monday.

This was not the last of the weekend’s violence.

After two of the six individuals arrested on Saturday were released at around 1am Sunday, they were run down by a car on a road close to the police station. Both were injured in the incident, with one of the two suffering a broken leg, reports Ritzau. 

READ ALSO: Three people detained after shooting at north Denmark supermarket

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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