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CRIME

16-year-old dies in Copenhagen shooting

Copenhagen Police are looking for witnesses after a 16-year-old was killed during a shooting in Denmark’s Østerbro neighbourhood on Monday evening.

Published: 17 October 2017 10:13 CEST
16-year-old dies in Copenhagen shooting
Police at Ragnhildgade, Copenhagen on October 16th, 2017. Photo: Thomas Sjørup/Scanpix

The teenager was pronounced dead after he was hit by several shots on the Ragnhildgade street in Østerbro, reports news agency Ritzau.

Copenhagen Police confirmed the incident in a press statement shortly after midnight. Reports of the shooting were received by police at 9:05pm Monday.

The 16-year-old was declared dead by medics at the scene, according to the report.

“We cannot at this point confirm the reason for the shooting,” deputy chief inspector Jens Møller Jensen said in the press statement.

“We are in great need of help from witnesses that may have seen anything of interest prior to the shooting, as well as acquaintances who were with the 16-year-old earlier in the evening,” Jensen added.

Relatives of the victim have been informed and a significant police presence in the area on Monday sought to secure evidence as well as security following the incident.

The street on which the shooting took place is located between Østerbro and neighbouring Nørrebro, which was plagued throughout the summer by persistent shooting incidents linked to organised crime.

A power struggle between a gang known as ‘Loyal to Familia' and another gang located in the Mjølnerparken and Nørrebro areas is reported to be behind the summer shootings.

No fatalities were reported from any of the previous shootings, which numbered into the mid-twenties.

But the violence now appears to be continuing into the autumn.

In September, a Swedish woman was the latest of an increasing number of innocent bystanders to be injured by stray shots during the incidents.

Over 50 people have been detained for weapons offences in connection with the violence and over 20 weapons have been seized by police, reports Ritzau.

In July, police set up stop-and-search zones in the city in a bid to curb the shootings. 

Last week, police director Anne Tønnes announced the fifth extension of the zones, which include the street on which the 16-year-old was killed.

READ ALSO: Copenhagen police close off neighbourhood after new shooting

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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