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Denmark indicts man for planning school shootings

A 27-year-old man from North Jutland is to face trial for planning to commit shootings at schools in locations across Jutland.

Published: 14 December 2021 18:24 CET
A file photo of Aalborg City Court. A 27-year-old man is to face trial next year for planning school shootings.
A file photo of Aalborg City Court. A 27-year-old man is to face trial next year for planning school shootings. Photo: Henning Bagger/Ritzau Scanpix

The man produced a manifest and a number of videos over a four-year period in which he described his desire to carry out a shooting attack at a school, according to the charges against him, seen by news wire Ritzau.

He will be put on trial for planning to carry out several school shootings across northern and central Jutland. The schools targeted in the plans are not stated.

According to the charge sheet, he had already taken several concrete steps towards being able to carry out the shootings. These included gaining a firearms licence and a permit to store weapons in his home. He then acquired two pistols.

Live ammunition and an 18-centimetre blade were also found during a police raid on his address.

In addition, the 27-year-old also went to the locations of educational institutes in Aarhus and made online searches for information on schools and a kindergarten in the North and East Jutland regions.

Information found by the man included details of break times, number of pupils and teaching timetables.

The man produced a manifest between 2015 and 2019. According to prosecution authorities, his plans took such form that in 2018 he acquired a car which he intended to use for the attacks.

He also obtained “tactical clothing” according to the Ritzau report. The clothing was found alongside ammunition magazines and balaclavas.

On December 13th last year the man, who lived in the town of Hobro, ordered an AR-15 semi-automatic rifle via Darknet. He was arrested on December 16th 2020.

He has been remanded in custody since his arrest, primarily at a secure psychiatric facility.

He denies the charges against him in the case, which is scheduled to go to Aalborg City Court next year.

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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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