COPENHAGEN: The chief suspect in a Copenhagen mall shooting was Monday remanded into a psychiatric care facility, one day after three people, including two teenagers, were shot dead.
“The court remands the 22-year-old in a closed psychiatric ward,” Copenhagen police said in a statement, following a two-hour hearing involving the suspect.
The suspected perpetrator of the attack, which took place late on Sunday afternoon, would be kept in custody for at least 24 days, which can then be extended, according to police.
The young man was brought before a judge at midday at the Copenhagen district court on Monday.
Wearing a blue T-shirt, he listened as the indictment for murder was read out, before the hearing continued behind closed doors.
According to public broadcaster DR, citing several unnamed sources, the suspected gunman had tried to reach a psychological help line shortly before the attack, but authorities would not confirm this.
Copenhagen police chief Soren Thomassen had already told a morning press conference that the “suspect is also known among psychiatric services”, but declined to comment further.
The attack occurred on the heels of the city playing host to the start of the Tour de France cycling competition and seeing the return of the Roskilde music festival after being cancelled due to Covid-19 curbs.
“I think we have rarely experienced such a violent contrast as yesterday,” Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen said as she arrived to pay tribute to the victims at the scene.
It may be recalled that gunfire in a Copenhagen mall Sunday left several victims, Danish police said, adding that they had arrested one person in connection with the shooting, but did not give details on a potential motive.
Police reinforcements had been deployed around the large Field’s mall in the Amager district between the city centre and the airport, Copenhagen police wrote on Twitter.
“We’re on the scene, shots were fired and several people have been hit,” they said.
Images from the scene showed women carrying their children and ambulance personnel carrying people away on stretchers.
“Terrible reports of shooting in Fields. We do not yet know for sure how many are injured or dead, but it is very serious,” Copenhagen’s mayor, Sophie Andersen, said in a post to social media.
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