A 22-year-old man suspected of killing three people at a shopping centre in Denmark’s capital, Copenhagen has been charged with murder.

Two Danish citizens, both aged 17, and a 47-year-old Russian citizen were killed in Sunday’s (July 3, 2022) attack. Police said the suspect has mental health issues and there is no indication of a terror motive. He had a rifle and a knife and his shooting was random, “not motivated by gender or anything else”, the Police added.

Danish media reported that the suspect appeared in front of a court in a blue T-shirt accompanied by three heavily armed officers. The suspect’s lawyers refused to enter a plea for the accused while the media were present and the judge ordered the rest of the hearing to be behind closed doors. Additionally, the judge also imposed a name ban on both the suspect and the victims. The suspect will be remanded in a closed psychiatric ward for 24 days, authorities said.

Report from the Police

Speaking to reporters earlier on Monday, July 4, 2022, Police Chief, Soeren Thomassen, intimated that they believed the suspect, described as “an ethnic Dane”, was acting alone and was not helped by anyone else. He added that the suspect was known “peripherally” to the Police.

Four people were seriously wounded in the attack. Two are Danish citizens, a 40-year-old woman and a 19-year-old woman. The other two are Swedes, a 50-year-old man and a 16-year-old woman. One remains in critical condition, the Chief Physician at one of the hospitals treating some of the victims said, giving no further details.

Three others were hit by stray bullets, taking the total number of people shot to 10, Police said. Out of the 10 people who were shot, six were women and four were men, Police Inspector, Dannie Rise, told reporters, while adding that one of those shot was an Afghan national.

Where it all Began

The deadly attack began at Field’s shopping mall at around 17:35 (15:35 GMT) local time on Sunday, July 3, 2022, according to the Police report.

The multi-storey shopping centre, which is one of the biggest in Denmark, is near a secondary school as well as a large student-housing block and is often full of young people.

Several of those present at the shopping centre spoke of how they fled the scene or hid in toilets, shops and storage rooms. An eyewitness, Mikkel Suldrup, who is a chef at a restaurant in the shopping mall, in an interview with reporters said “One moment I was making pizzas, the next moment a woman ran in and told us a man had started shooting… it just went chaotic… People crying, people panicking”.

“A lot of people sought refuge in our restaurant. We had some kids who got lost from their parents. It was really terrible. I was scared of course. You had this feeling he could have come into our shop.”
Mikkel Suldrup

Police arrested the suspect near the mall, 13 minutes after being alerted to the attack. Talking about the attack’s aftermath, Mr. Suldrup said “I saw a dead man being carried out. It’s indescribable, it really is. It’s unbearable.”

“You hear about these things happening in other countries, USA mainly, but you just don’t think it happens here.”
Mikkel Suldrup

Praising the Police’s response, concert-goer, Jan Muller, told the media that “They acted really quickly, organising transport for everyone.”

Meanwhile, Police are also investigating videos of a young man with weapons, which have been circulating on social media since Sunday, July 3, 2022, believed to be authentic.