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SHOOTING

Danish taskforce concludes no single reason for Field’s shooting

A taskforce appointed to scrutinise events leading up to a lethal shooting at Copenhagen shopping mall Field’s in July has concluded its work.

Danish taskforce concludes no single reason for Field’s shooting
People observe a minute's silence in Copenhagen shopping mall Field's on July 11th, the day it reopened after a deadly shooting attack. Photo:Liselotte Sabroe/Ritzau Scanpix

The suspected shooter, a 22-year-old man, had contacted psychiatric services in the Danish capital prior to the attack, in which three people were killed and several wounded.

A taskforce was appointed to evaluate the sequence of events leading to the shooting, specifically in relation to the suspected shooter’s contact with mental health services in Copenhagen. Few details of this have been released due to data protection laws.

The taskforce concluded that the shooting could not be attributed to any single cause, its chairperson said on Tuesday.

“There was nothing in our investigations that has suggested we would be able to find a core reason,” Tina Gram Larsen, medical director of the North Jutland regional health authority, the head of the taskforce, said at a briefing.

READ ALSO: Denmark’s mental health services in spotlight after Copenhagen shooting 

The taskforce is to make six recommendations for psychiatric services in measures aimed at preventing similar tragedies in future.

Those include better continuity in treatments so that patients are not frequently moved between different personnel.

Although the recommendations show that improvements can be made, Larsen said that “this is not a statement that if we’d only done these things, it would never have happened”.

The 22-year-old suspected shooter was arrested shortly after the attacks took place. He is currently detained at a secure psychiatric unit. He is held on suspicion of murder and attempted murder.

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CRIME

Danish police charge man for entering supermarket with loaded shotgun

A man has been charged by Denmark’s police prosecution service after he entered a supermarket carrying a loaded shotgun among several other weapons.

Danish police charge man for entering supermarket with loaded shotgun

The incident took place in a Rema 1000 supermarket in the town of Hareskovby in northern Zealand in August last year and has been kept secret from the public until now, with court proceedings taking place behind closed doors.

In addition to the firearm, the 19-year-old man was also carrying an axe, five knives and a baseball bat.

The prosecution is charging the man for breaking laws related to firearms possession under aggravated circumstances. It is unclear how the 19-year-old will plead.

Newspaper BT reported last autumn that police suspected the man of intending to commit a mass shooting, but this has never been confirmed.

The supermarket is located close to a former residence of Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen, who lived there at the time of the incident and used the supermarket on a number of occasions. Police previously told BT they do not believe Frederiksen was a target.

According to the charge sheet presented on Tuesday, the man is currently admitted to a psychiatric ward. The prosecution is not seeking a prison sentence in the case but is demanding he be brought to a secure psychiatric facility for up to five years.

Danish law does not permit custodial sentences to be given to persons who are deemed “unaccountable due to a mental illness” (Danish: utilregnelig på grund af singssygdom) at the time the offence was committed.

The incident in the Rema 1000 store took place less than two months after a mass shooting in the Field’s shopping mall in Copenhagen which resulted in three deaths. The Field’s shooter was recently sentenced to indefinite detention, with his mental state both during and after the event a factor in the sentence.

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