Danish police said on Monday that four people were in critical condition after being shot in a shooting at a Copenhagen shopping mall on Sunday that killed three people.
Police Chief Inspector Soren Thomassen told reporters there was no indication the shooting was an “act of terror” or that the suspect, a 22-year-old Danish man, had acted together with others.
“There has been some kind of deliberation and preparation (by the suspect) leading up to this terrible event,” Thomassen told a news conference without giving details of the perpetrator’s possible motives.
He said the shooter killed two 17-year-olds, a man and a woman, and a 47-year-old Russian citizen living in Denmark.
Danish broadcaster TV2 published a grainy photo of the suspected gunman, a man wearing knee-length shorts, a vest or tank top and holding what appeared to be a rifle in his right hand. “He seemed very violent and angry,” a witness told the channel. “He spoke to me and told me that (the rifle) is not real because he was filming it. He seemed very proud of what he was doing,” he assured.
The four gunshot wounded are in critical but stable condition, and among them are two Swedish citizens, a 50-year-old man and a 16-year-old girl. Thomassen could not say whether the Swedish citizens lived in Denmark or were just visiting.
Several people were slightly injured fleeing the scene, but not from gunshots, according to police.
The suspect, who police say was known to psychiatrists in Denmark, was in possession of a rifle, ammunition and a knife when he was arrested.
“It is pure terror. This is horrible,” Hans Christian Stoltz, 53, told the AP as he was taking his daughters to see British singer Harry Styles perform at a concert scheduled for Sunday night near the mall. The event was canceled due to the shooting.
On Snapchat, Styles wrote: “My team and I are praying for everyone involved in the Copenhagen shopping mall shooting. I am shocked.”
Yesterday’s was the worst gun attack in Denmark since February 2015, when a 22-year-old man was killed in a shootout with police after a wave of shootings in the capital left two dead and five policemen wounded. That attack is believed to have been motivated by Islamic extremism.
Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen called Sunday’s shooting a “cruel attack.” “It’s incomprehensible. Distressing. Nonsense,” she said. “Our beautiful and usually so secure capital was changed in a split second,” she said.
Field’s shopping center is located on the outskirts of Copenhagen, directly opposite a metro station on a line that connects the city center with the international airport.
The shooting came a week after another mass shooting in neighboring Norway, where police said a Norwegian man of Iranian descent opened fire during an LGBTQ festival, killing two people and wounding more than 20.
