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SHOOTING

Copenhagen mall shooter considered attack on kindergarten

The shooter in last year’s fatal shooting attack at the Field’s mall in Copenhagen also took an interest in a kindergarten close to his residence, it emerged during the man’s trial on Monday.

Copenhagen mall shooter considered attack on kindergarten
The trial of the Field's shooter began on Monday in Copenhagen. Photo: Ida Marie Odgaard/Ritzau Scanpix

Police found papers in the apartment of the Field’s shooting suspect that suggest the man was considering an attack on a nearby kindergarten, it emerged on Monday during the man’s ongoing trial for the Field’s attack.

The now-23-year-old man killed three people in a shooting attack at Field’s on July 3rd 2022. His trial began on Monday and is scheduled to take place over several days in June.

On the man’s phone, investigators found a photo of the kindergarten in Copenhagen district Amager. The photo was taken from the balcony of the man’s apartment.

Additionally, police pieced together a ripped-up sheet of paper on which the words “Find the easiest way to get into [kindergarten’s name]” were written, along with the daily schedule for the childcare institution.

Also written on the paper was a description of the order in which the subject would shoot once inside the kindergarten, starting with grown men, then women, then children with boys targeted before girls.

He does not face any charges related specifically to the apparent plans focusing on the kindergarten.

Copenhagen Municipality released a statement after the kindergarten was named during the ongoing court case.

“I am certainly affected deeply by this serious situation. It is not nice to think of the consequences of the act that was planned. But I also know that this is about one person, and that man is not going to be released and therefore has no way of going through with it,” Majbrit Møller, the leader of the group of childcare facilities which includes the kindergarten, said in the statement.

The prosecution authority is calling for the 23-year-old to be sentenced to indefinite detention at a secure psychiatric unit in the case, which is ongoing. A decision in the case is due on July 5th.

Psychological help is meanwhile to be made available to staff and parents at the kindergarten following the news of the disturbing details of the case related to it, Copenhagen Municipality said.

“The committee for children and young people were, prior to today’s court meeting, informed by Copenhagen Police about the kindergarten’s role in the Field’s incident and the institution’s staff, parents’ council and parents have been invited to an information meeting about the case,” the Copenhagen Municipality said in a statement.

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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.

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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