Denmark: Gunman acted alone, mall shooting likely not terror-related

Danish police believe a shopping mall shooting that has left three people dead and four others seriously wounded is not terror-related, saying that the gunman acted alone and appears to have selected his victims at random.

Copenhagen chief police inspector Soren Thomassen said on Monday that police had no indication that anyone helped the gunman, identified as a 22-year-old Dane.

He said while the motive is unclear, there is nothing suggesting terrorism, and that the suspect would be arraigned later on Monday on preliminary charges of murder.

“There is nothing in our investigation, or the documents we have reviewed, or the things we have found, or the witnesses’ statements we have gotten, that can substantiate that this is an act of terrorism," he said.

He confirmed that the suspect was known to mental health services but provided no further information.

Thomassen said the victims - a 17-year-old boy and a 17-year-old girl, both Danes, and a 47-year-old Russian man - were killed when the gunman opened fire on Sunday afternoon in the Field's shopping mall, one of Scandinavia's biggest.

Four other people - two Danish and two Swedish citizens - were treated for gunshot wounds and were in critical but stable condition, Thomassen said. Several other people received minor injuries as they fled the shopping mall, he added.

READ MORE: Multiple victims in Copenhagen mall shooting

'Cruel attack'

Thomassen said that beside the rifle the suspect had when detained, “we also know that he has had access to a gun and that he carried a knife."

Images from the scene showed people running out of the mall in panic. After the shooting, a big contingent of heavily armed police officers patrolled the area, with several fire department vehicles also parked outside the mall.

It was the worst gun attack in Denmark since February 2015, when a 22-year-old man was killed in a shootout with police after going on a shooting spree in the capital that left two people dead and five police officers wounded. That attack was believed to have been terror-related.

Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen called Sunday's shooting a “cruel attack.”

“It is incomprehensible. Heartbreaking. Pointless,” she said. “Our beautiful and usually so safe capital was changed in a split second.”

The Field's shopping center is on the outskirts of Copenhagen just across from a subway station for a line that connects the city center with the international airport. A major highway also runs adjacent to the mall.

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