Denmark mall shooting suspect held in psychiatric facility

A gunman who killed three shoppers in a Copenhagen mall acted alone and may have randomly selected his victims, Danish police said Monday. The 22-year-old suspect has been remanded to a secure mental health facility for 24 days, authorities added.

The Danish suspect, who cannot be named by a court order, appeared in court Monday to face three preliminary charges of murder and four of attempted murder.

The slain victims were identified as a 17-year-old boy and 17-year-old girl, both Danish, and a Russian national, 46, Danish police said in a statement.

Four people were critically wounded by gunfire but were in stable condition in the hospital, Copenhagen’s Head of Police, Soren Thomassen, said at a press conference Monday.

In total, 27 people were injured, 10 of them by gunfire, Danish police said. Four men and six women, aged 15 to 50, were hit by bullets. In addition, 20 others were “slightly injured” in the melee as patrons fled the mall.

Police nabbed the suspect 13 minutes after the first call came in from Field’s, one of Scandinavia’s biggest shopping centers. He was carrying a rifle and a knife, and had access to another gun, Thomassen said, all of them illegally obtained.

The suspect’s identity was withheld by court order, as were the names of the victims. He’ll be in custody at least until July 28, police said.

Terrorism does not seem to have been the motive, and Danish police said the gunman acted alone. He was “known to people in the psychiatric field” and chose his victims randomly, officials said.

“It was the worst possible nightmare,” Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen said Monday of the “unusually brutal” attack.

With News Wire Services